{"id":7311,"date":"2026-04-21T07:34:06","date_gmt":"2026-04-21T07:34:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/?p=7311"},"modified":"2026-04-21T07:38:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-21T07:38:09","slug":"how-malaysias-wrp-asia-pacific-collapsed-in-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/2026\/04\/21\/how-malaysias-wrp-asia-pacific-collapsed-in-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"How Malaysia&#8217;s WRP Asia Pacific Collapsed in 2026"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>Forced labour ban, RM140M alleged CEO fraud, 70% butadiene shock \u2014 how a 41-year glove empire supplying the NHS and 200 countries ended in 4,000 layoffs.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Rise of WRP Asia Pacific Founded by Tan Sri Ibrahim Mohamed in 1985, WRP Asia Pacific was a Malaysian premium rubber glove and urology catheter manufacturer that sold barrier protection to hospitals and distributors across the globe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Founders\u2019 Story<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>WRP started as Wembley Rubber Products in Sepang, Selangor, back in 1985. Tan Sri Ibrahim Mohamed was a veteran Malaysian industrialist, and he saw two things colliding at the time \u2014 the AIDS crisis sending global demand for medical gloves through the roof, and Malaysia pushing hard to dominate the world&#8217;s rubber downstream industry. The bet was simple \u2192 <strong>build premium medical gloves that Western hospitals could trust, and ride the wave of global healthcare demand for decades.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>The Problem <\/strong>-Hospitals and distributors worldwide needed reliable barrier protection, but supply was messy and inconsistent.\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>The AIDS crisis had sent demand for medical gloves skyrocketing in the 1980s<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Existing suppliers struggled with pinholes, contamination, and quality variance that put healthcare workers at risk<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Developed-market buyers like the NHS and US hospitals needed FDA-compliant, pinhole-free gloves at massive scale<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>The Solution<\/strong> &#8211; WRP built a premium manufacturer of latex and nitrile gloves, plus specialty medical devices like urology balloon catheters. \n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Proprietary dipping processes and compounding formulas for consistency<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>FDA QSR, ISO 13485, and CE Mark certifications that unlocked developed-market buyers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>OEM manufacturing for big brands plus its own Dermagrip label sold worldwide<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In short,<strong>\u00a0WRP made the gloves<\/strong>\u00a0that protected the world&#8217;s healthcare workers \u2014 and built a global empire on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"500\" src=\"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/WRP-image-2.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-7313\" srcset=\"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/WRP-image-2.jpg 800w, https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/WRP-image-2-300x188.jpg 300w, https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/WRP-image-2-768x480.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>By 2005, the company had hit a rough patch financially.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s when the founders brought in Datuk Lee Son Hong (the former CEO of rival APL Industries, who&#8217;d just sold APLI to Supermax) to run a turnaround.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>And it worked. Kind of.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Under Lee, WRP roared back to life. Net profit jumped to RM38.6 million in 2009, and revenue peaked at RM491 million in FY2010. By then, WRP was running 44 production lines, churning out 3.65 billion gloves a year, and exporting to 48 countries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>In 2011, they drafted an IPO prospectus to list on Bursa Malaysia as &#8220;WRP World Bhd&#8221;. The listing was shelved, but private equity came knocking instead \u2014 TAEL Partners entered in October 2013 via master tawarruq facility agreements, bringing institutional money in.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At its peak, WRP:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>produced\u00a0<strong>11 billion gloves per year\u00a0<\/strong>across 69 production lines in 3 factories<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>held roughly\u00a0<strong>12% of the US sterile surgical glove market<\/strong><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>represented about\u00a0<strong>5%<\/strong>\u00a0of Malaysia&#8217;s entire glove manufacturing capacity<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>employed over\u00a04,000 people<\/strong>\u00a0with distribution offices in the US, Austria, Costa Rica, and UAE<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>was supplying hospitals across nearly\u00a0<strong>200 countries<\/strong>\u00a0(including the UK&#8217;s NHS)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>From a single Sepang factory to one of the world&#8217;s largest premium glove makers. On paper, WRP had built exactly what Tan Sri Ibrahim set out to build.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But the way they got there was about to catch up with them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>The Fall of WRP Asia Pacific<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then on 9 December 2018, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/global-development\/2018\/dec\/09\/nhs-rubber-gloves-made-in-malaysian-factories-accused-of-forced-labour?utm_source=www.therunway.ventures&amp;utm_medium=newsletter&amp;utm_campaign=how-malaysia-s-wrp-asia-pacific-collapsed-in-2026&amp;_bhlid=7918fd19b3c2b7601e2679f8944d4fae24152ca5\">The Guardian<\/a> dropped a story bomb.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>According to The Guardian&#8217;s investigation, WRP, one of the suppliers making rubber gloves for Britain&#8217;s NHS, was alleged to be running on forced labour. The Guardian reported allegations of debt bondage, passport confiscation, excessive overtime, and wages withheld for months. The paper also reported 3,000 workers packed into dorms built for 1,800, and factory floors said to reach 70\u00b0C. WRP denied the allegations at the time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>What followed was six years of escalating crisis \u2014 strikes, bans, a boardroom war, criminal charges. And then, right when it looked like they might survive, one final shock that broke everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Here\u2019s what happened to WRP Asia Pacific:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-pullquote\"><blockquote><p>It\u2019s been three months already and we have had no pay, it is very very hard. I can\u2019t send the money back to my family who need it. They are asking me where it is.<\/p><cite>&#8211; shared by one Nepalese worker at WRP<\/cite><\/blockquote><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Your Partner in Protection<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong>28 Nov 1985<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Wembley Rubber Products incorporated in Sepang, Selangor.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Mar 1998<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 Renamed to WRP Asia Pacific Sdn Bhd, adopted the slogan &#8220;Your Partner in Protection&#8221;, and picked up a majority stake in US-based WRP Corporation.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>2005<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Datuk Lee Son Hong\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/link.mail.beehiiv.com\/ss\/c\/u001.dN8JIBA15LkjUFdlUCcsc57fqtWdduXH3QwcGwXRriFT9PSmqN4klsFsXQ90gzOp0kgVqfFnqsx8n8bX-HJ-N076HTED0yoWeHM2n7rRujKJ0Kt3rUR5I1oDZmVOlGp4rBiXrHt8021l89aN_HbAsOaULVeS60wIe9MS3bsFt8iKmNJ1P7y7DNi8hfXUhUf1FS7VY-wFKQoq_J_Rph7eDhhP4mO0bjZlWtTM7MVBv895AsnPIaYNmIXOMvZcZHaY7Fn78HhzGqy9_fZSd20tenLWuHHrm330j_mvWVQAmSkYfSDzQUxSoTpUnHrvGsDbLKxouvfJPrwNB-2zPWY-Lw\/4px\/Zu0gq1uYTH2f2RM0xJKTmA\/h12\/h001.3dTxNneKNY16sNQ3iwFGWLuPpsNebs7KTMRDbpl48Zo\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">joined<\/a>\u00a0as CEO to run a turnaround, fresh from selling rival APLI to Supermax.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>2010<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Peak financial year. Revenue\u00a0<strong>RM491 million<\/strong>, net profit\u00a0<strong>RM35.7 million<\/strong>, exports to 48 countries.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>2011<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Draft IPO prospectus filed for &#8220;WRP World Bhd&#8221; on Bursa Malaysia. But the listing was shelved.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>29 Oct 2013<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0TAEL Partners entered via master tawarruq facility agreements, bringing institutional private equity in.<br><br><strong>When the US said no<\/strong><br><img decoding=\"async\" height=\"auto\" width=\"232\" src=\"https:\/\/ci3.googleusercontent.com\/meips\/ADKq_NaZRv9uf2Z7ycJ4JBPSqMbHPnOTswqMSO3Qpyd_7xoBOId996ym9FfK3I8lhfYkQrUTNiZFg89tLq89QBNCaVJB8urGFom0SV2ZTz9-TM_4DrAFaLHYMmGmg4sJalxUgU8hYd7jlg-WYGjev4TLOWES6Vy5Y1gPAinDZbAwhZW1jzFD-W5o6zK3SgzUhz4cvW_XHIPqRrlL8hsLZpJ7aJZNyOJbf-KFwpSwnu9e11dhrUI25WOirBxFxqPwg4lIMCdDePjvwE7ACR4PjCxeGqLHtiOoR94=s0-d-e1-ft#https:\/\/media.beehiiv.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/fit=scale-down,format=auto,onerror=redirect,quality=80\/uploads\/asset\/file\/cf1ee9d3-df25-4b41-a8d4-330ae477b889\/waving-american-factory.gif?t=1776506036\" alt=\"\"><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>9 Dec 2018<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014 The Guardian\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/link.mail.beehiiv.com\/ss\/c\/u001.UunSakQ4JfsZwjM4UO95KlcwxC_6ZpudzkuFJg3PRDVrj_qPbmGYWaJ5crzpYucqE9nKsc_Z7Jc6Odx__lW17ED3QUQnsjn49I-x8xK8CQyhFSSrQNuXJvtb7z-xASo9jsmg5vpN5ZpFtj-6lyLV2l_L49pDoc4xkWk493uMa33ZFOIXEegL8WeAUOIJAoJIylX880X8l8GoiNgCS2rQEgL_zOr5-tOkJvo7srH86jgpsLqaspgqb43TT4NGq7YfKUiPKXBg1PwJyG6qHaCOJd3W-VWzBvx34YuR7V_tZfwC4aSedoKbrlRyJyNeDUcBR6T5jUjmASgjIeP72dXVNZSVbWhSJdW2TV7Ukt7xu0MLGo7rkvLR8pEJUZXPXFwFvEFobfrdOKoHQQyaunI68A\/4px\/Zu0gq1uYTH2f2RM0xJKTmA\/h13\/h001.U2AERIxJSW1I0vYHx-oGyfgG8DVT0MQKPi-FMQFJWLw\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">exposed<\/a><strong>\u00a0forced labour allegations<\/strong>\u00a0at WRP \u2014 debt bondage, passport confiscation, wage withholding. CEO Lee denied it all.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Jan 2019<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Around 2,000 Nepali workers went on a 3-day strike over three months of unpaid wages.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>30 Sep 2019<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0US Customs and Border Protection\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/link.mail.beehiiv.com\/ss\/c\/u001.UunSakQ4JfsZwjM4UO95KoEGUSg1AVfcd5UB8YRmPFGpXwFwPOfWYJqJuUxHAWmeIlSfnYT8PuvcopsLJplsxCLS0jE7Af3nIrz9ykDXhhsnuJ5aRrlL2OQU5uzkYDSzTO_X1D4eqF6PkJ7-fHKsK2GNiOtbYWJBtoom3gMxcSrMku2GTwih-kV34yUsrB828SLnIaq3AsnPrmU9zcXENLixS2jcnNxF9HfpM4RTn75jZeUgSNqbFA-a5AAbof5xy8NC6mt9pXSRvYkmO2pUzHKC2_TkUzM06Y5ql7LsnHb10_3WMH_sSqRCgO-5xq8YhE6I9PcjH7ZD95bHV800RAKn9NY_7RgmvHOPjNYYrOjNNCZVrec8vIZjRwDsSmrLZw0-jOk4d1xSACjGtweiWQ\/4px\/Zu0gq1uYTH2f2RM0xJKTmA\/h14\/h001.9IQPAh8ENCkTzGPzW8KE5aZI5BOeAYGqrmsr-l55SnU\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">issued<\/a>\u00a0a Withhold Release Order banning WRP gloves from the US over forced labour concerns. WRP just lost its largest market.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>30 Dec 2019<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Kuala Lumpur High Court appointed an interim liquidator. Lee Son Hong was ousted as CEO.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Early Jan 2020<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0TAEL Partners injected emergency funds of\u00a0<strong>RM25.25 million<\/strong>\u00a0over two rounds to pay overdue salaries and fund a turnaround team. Workers reportedly received only\u00a0<strong>RM500 each<\/strong>, paid in cash from briefcases brought into the factory under security.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>23 Mar 2020<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0US CBP revoked the WRO after WRP agreed to roughly US$5.4 million in remediation for about 1,600 migrant workers.<br>WRP donated 500,000 gloves to Malaysia&#8217;s Ministry of Health the same day.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>May 2020<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0All 69 production lines reactivated, just in time for the COVID-19 glove boom.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>24 Nov 2020<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0Former CEO Lee Son Hong\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/link.mail.beehiiv.com\/ss\/c\/u001.UunSakQ4JfsZwjM4UO95Kk8WJkJVMJo9ZDEUsGe_4ulLPiAA-yIrZXJ8J8mxZDwZal80ScrjtKW8aEPFhiOdVSaQlimmE5VL5GSMvV43lawl-Xmka4YA1j3UmsicJg_WBaOq0PZ57zI3mzgjrmJaSCkD4XSKPhywwwwj5fhUIIGBdX-TUM5bojuU0Xy2hvgdlkMPGjqPPj9uoH6K8wl-O-fAfX7XUwAY9DpPC6L3_wSOh-xtJy3L5ZkqpivKoZMgYbkq1NpwmhO7WTpgMuXBe3lTtGRGY80AipEMSoPgcAk9FQHeT-OmECeQc5-Iuxpi-kmSCUQZCKfNk1atgp5uAkD9WAlz-NUK0S4BqFqUIfRa2s7Hq2YvK5duDc1WnTnBhCMg7KO5RtHfyP7pWs9rnnGWD3lNXBmQKalKfWdnwz4\/4px\/Zu0gq1uYTH2f2RM0xJKTmA\/h15\/h001.aEVTHPiqWH6erehgJ_UFPCqPDG16WKLNO7o6-R7dAwI\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">charged<\/a>\u00a0with 8 counts of Criminal Breach of Trust totalling\u00a0<strong>RM131.85 million<\/strong>, plus 3 counts of false claims totalling RM8.4 million. His wife was charged with abetment. Both pleaded not guilty.<br>Forensic audits had allegedly found production line purchases between 2014\u20132016 inflated to over twice market value, with funds funnelled to private companies.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>Jun 2024<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0FY ending June 2024 showed revenue of\u00a0<strong>RM204.6 million<\/strong>\u00a0and a net loss of\u00a0<strong>RM78 million<\/strong>. The post-pandemic glove glut had crushed margins.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>31 Mar 2026<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0WRP issued a letter to global customers announcing wind-down effective 15 April, citing Middle East conflict disruptions and a ~70% surge in butadiene costs.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li><strong>15 Apr 2026<\/strong>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0WRP officially ceased operations. Over 4,000 employees faced redundancy.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The forced labour scandal had cost them their biggest market. Alleged fraud by their own CEO had hollowed out the balance sheet. COVID demand gave them a brief reprieve, but it masked how weak the business really was underneath.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Then butadiene prices surged 70% on a geopolitical shock thousands of miles away \u2014 and there was nothing left to absorb it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>At the end of the day, the company whose slogan was &#8220;Your Partner in Protection&#8221; couldn&#8217;t protect itself from the mess it had built.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><em>Want to learn more about WRP Asia Pacific\u2019s downfall?<\/em><\/strong> Read all about it at <a href=\"https:\/\/www.therunway.ventures\/p\/wrp-asia-pacific\">The Runway Venture<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Forced labour ban, RM140M alleged CEO fraud, 70% butadiene shock \u2014 how a 41-year glove empire supplying the NHS and 200 countries ended in 4,000 layoffs. The Rise of WRP Asia Pacific Founded by Tan Sri Ibrahim Mohamed in 1985, WRP Asia Pacific was a Malaysian premium rubber glove and urology catheter manufacturer that sold [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":7312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37,39],"tags":[1046,1048,1049,614,200,1047,1045],"class_list":["post-7311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-features","category-news","tag-fraud","tag-gloves","tag-hospitals","tag-klse","tag-malaysia","tag-nhs","tag-wrp"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7311"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7314,"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7311\/revisions\/7314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/malaysian-business.com\/portal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}