Yuhan-Kimberly Quietly Donates 150,000 Masks

by Moon Hyewon

Published 11 Feb.2020 10:40(KST)

President Choi Gyubok: "Sales Can Never Take Priority Over Human Safety"

Choi Kyu-bok, CEO and President of Yuhan-Kimberly.

[Asia Economy Reporter Moon Hyewon] It has recently been revealed that Yuhan-Kimberly donated 150,000 masks to vulnerable groups to prevent the novel coronavirus infection (Wuhan pneumonia). Yuhan-Kimberly donated its self-produced 'Kleenex KF80 masks' to vulnerable groups living in Asan City, Chungnam Province, Jincheon County, Chungbuk Province, Seoul, and Jeju through Naver's donation foundation 'Happy Bean.' Asan and Jincheon are also places where Korean residents returning from Wuhan City, Hubei Province, China, were quarantined.

Yuhan-Kimberly's decision to donate was made swiftly. The company held an emergency response meeting early last week and immediately established a distribution plan for about 4,000 vulnerable households nationwide. The company's logistics team began delivering 150,000 masks from the 5th and distributed them to each household the next day.

Choi Gyubok, CEO of Yuhan-Kimberly, reportedly said, "Sales are important, but they can never take precedence over people's safety. Since this is the time when masks are most needed, I hope our products are delivered promptly to where they are needed." Considering the recent social atmosphere, Yuhan-Kimberly did not hold any public donation ceremonies to announce the donation.

Yuhan-Kimberly has been donating sanitary pads, newborn diapers, and other products to vulnerable groups every year. Since the social impact of the 'insole sanitary pad' incident involving low-income girls in 2016, the company has cooperated with the Korea Women's Foundation to donate 5 million sanitary pads to schools nationwide and girl care pharmacies in Seoul. Since 2017, it has been supplying Huggies Naturemade preemie (small size) diapers, ultra-small diapers for premature babies (born before 7 weeks or weighing less than 2.5 kg) who require incubator care, free of charge. To date, more than 1.6 million pads of ultra-small diapers have been provided free of charge.

Yuhan-Kimberly, established in 1970 as a joint venture between Yuhan Corporation and Kimberly-Clark of the United States, is a mid-sized company that manufactures and sells diapers, toilet paper, and feminine products (paper products and paper processed goods). In 1971, it was the first in Korea to manufacture and sell 'Kleenex,' a beauty tissue, and 'Kotex,' a disposable sanitary pad. In 1975, it launched and sold 'Ppoppy,' a toilet-specific toilet paper, and in 1983, it introduced and sold 'Huggies,' a pant-type diaper, both for the first time in Korea.