VLI of Irvine Begins Marketing Its Condom Brand Nationwide

Taking advantage of a booming market for condoms, VLI Corp. said Friday that it has begun shipping its new Today brand to drugstores and mass merchandisers throughout the nation.

The Irvine personal products company also has begun shipping its new Clearplan Ovulation Predictor, a test kit to help women predict more accurately when they are about to begin ovulation.

The products should be on store shelves in a month or so, according to Robert Elliott, VLI’s president and chief executive officer.

The two new products make sense for VLI, said James McCamant, editor of Medical Technology Newsletter in San Francisco. VLI already produces and markets the Today vaginal contraceptive sponge and the Today personal lubricant.

McCamant said many new makers or marketers of condoms are trying to break into the lucrative field but have limited ability to distribute their products. VLI, however, already has a distribution system and has gained national recognition for its Today brand products, he added.

“It’s too soon to say what sales we can expect,” he said. “But the condom market is just exploding. It was a $150-million market a year ago, and it’s expanding at a rate of 25% to 30% a year now.” He said the public’s fear of contracting AIDS--which is transmitted by body fluids--has spurred condom sales nationwide.

While the makers of Trojan, Ramses and Sheik brand condoms control about 90% of the retail market, Elliott said, many new manufacturers are scrambling to get a share of the rest.

The Today condoms are being produced by an American company that, under its contract with VLI, cannot be identified.

The ovulation test kit also is being produced by an outside supplier. It is being touted by VLI as a simple--no mixing, no measuring--home test that will let more than 90% of women determine peak fertility within 10 days of testing. The product, like the VLI-distributed Clearblue at-home pregnancy test, is made by a division of Unilever PLC in London to compete in the $70-million U.S. home-testing market.