Durex is a British brand of

condom A condom is a sheath-shaped Barrier contraception, barrier device used during sexual intercourse to reduce the probability of pregnancy or a Sexually transmitted disease, sexually transmitted infection (STI). There are both external condo ...

s and

personal lubricant Personal lubricants (colloquially termed lube) are specialized lubricants used during sexual acts, such as intercourse and masturbation, to reduce friction to or between the penis and vagina, anus or other body parts, or applied to sex toys to ...

s owned by

Reckitt Benckiser Reckitt Benckiser Group PLC, currently branded as Reckitt, formerly known as Reckitt Benckiser, is a British multinational consumer goods company headquartered in Slough, United Kingdom. It is a producer of health, hygiene and nutrition prod ...

. It was initially developed in London under the purview of the

London Rubber Company SSL International plc was a British manufacturer of healthcare products. Its best known brands were Durex and Scholl; other significant brands were Sauber and Mister Baby. The company's name was an abbreviation of ''Seton Scholl London Internat ...

and British Latex Products Ltd, where it was manufactured between 1932 and 1994. The London Rubber Company was formed in 1915, and the Durex brand name ("Durability, reliability, and excellence") was launched in 1929, although London Rubber did not begin manufacturing own-brand condoms until 1932, in collaboration with a rubber technology student from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

named Lucian Lundau. The London Rubber Company later merged with

SSL International SSL International plc was a British manufacturer of healthcare products. Its best known brands were Durex and Dr. Scholl's, Scholl; other significant brands were Sauber and Mister Baby. The company's name was an abbreviation of ''Seton Scholl Lo ...

, and has since 2010 been owned by the

Anglo Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to, or descent from England, English culture, the English people or the English language, such as in the term ''Anglosphere''. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people of British d ...

Dutch Dutch or Nederlands commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands ** Dutch people as an ethnic group () ** Dutch nationality law, history and regulations of Dutch citizenship () ** Dutch language () * In specific terms, i ...

company

. It is one of the best-selling condom brands around the world, with 30% of the global market. In 2006, Durex condoms were the second-best-selling brand of condoms in the United States, with Trojan condoms being the first. It is supplied by, among others, the company

Karex Karex Berhad is a Malaysian condom manufacturer, one of the largest in the world. It produces more than five billion condoms a year and one in every five condoms globally. The company also supplies condoms to marketing brands like Durex. Operatio ...

. In 2007, the last factory making Durex condoms in the UK stopped manufacturing and production has since moved to China, India and

Thailand Thailand, officially the Kingdom of Thailand and historically known as Siam (the official name until 1939), is a country in Southeast Asia on the Mainland Southeast Asia, Indochinese Peninsula. With a population of almost 66 million, it spa ...

. The modern range includes a wide variety of

latex Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latices are found in nature, but synthetic latices are common as well. In nature, latex is found as a wikt:milky, milky fluid, which is present in 10% of all floweri ...

condom, including the ''Sheik'' and ''Ramses'' brands in North America, and the ''Avanti'' condom. Durex also provides a range of lubricants and

sex toy A sex toy is an object or device that is primarily used to facilitate sexual pleasure, such as a dildo, artificial vagina or vibrator. Many popular sex toys are designed to resemble human genitals, and may be vibrating or non-vibrating. The ...

s. Although Durex was not an official sponsor of the

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

, Durex provided 150,000 free condoms to more than 10,000 athletes that competed in the

2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012, were an international multi-sport event held from 27 July to 12 August 2012 in London, England, United Kingdom. The first event, the ...

in London.

Market share

China

Although condoms are not a widely used form of contraception in China, with only around 10% of sexually active people using them, among Chinese condom users Durex has a dominant market share of 45% as of 2015. Due to a relatively conservative culture surrounding sex, Durex's marketing in China is often indirect and subtle, often involving lighthearted humour. Marketing is done almost exclusively on social media. Durex has operated an account on the

microblogging Microblogging is a form of blogging using short posts without titles known as microposts or status updates. Microblogs "allow users to exchange small elements of content such as short sentences, individual images, or video links", which may be the ...

site

Weibo Weibo (), or Sina Weibo (), is a Chinese microblogging ( weibo) website. Launched by Sina Corporation on 14 August 2009, it is one of the biggest social media platforms in China, with over 582 million monthly active users (252 million daily ac ...

in 2011, which had 2.65 million followers and more than 20,000 posts as of 2018. Durex targets Chinese users on Sina Weibo aged from 20 to 40, and primarily men under 35 years old. In 2011, Durex began cross-industry advertising tie-ins with the

antivirus software Antivirus software (abbreviated to AV software), also known as anti-malware, is a computer program used to prevent, detect, and remove malware. Antivirus software was originally developed to detect and remove computer viruses, hence the name ...

company

Trend Micro is an American-Japanese cyber security software company. The company has globally dispersed R&D in 16 locations across every continent excluding Antarctica. The company develops enterprise security software for servers, containers, and cloud ...

, using the common themes of "antivirus" and "security".

References

External links

* *
Website about the book ''Protective Practices''
including background information on LRC {{condom Condom brands British brands Reckitt brands Products introduced in 1915