Adult Incontinence Wholesale: Diapers, Pads & OEM Supply

We manufacture adult incontinence products and supply them wholesale, direct from our own factory in Jiangmen, China — not through a trading desk. The range covers tape-type briefs, pull-up protective underwear, body-worn incontinence pads and 60×90 cm underpads, under our own adult-care brands, Sparklecare and FlowX, or under yours. Adult incontinence starts at 10,000 packs per product — a lower entry point than any other line we run — and it ships alongside our sanitary pad, liner and tampon programmes.

Samples come first: tell us the market, the channel and the product, we send samples, you test them, then you place the production order.

The facts buyers check first

What We Make: Briefs, Protective Underwear, Pads and Underpads

Four core product families, plus the insert and liner formats listed at the end of the table — and settling which one you are actually quoting is the first job, because most enquiries that stall do so with the buyer and the factory describing different products using the same word.

The FlowX briefs run in fixed absorbency-size-pack combinations, which matters when you are building a shelf range rather than ordering one SKU: 1600 ml in XL at 10 or 30 pieces; 1500 ml in L at 10 or 30; 1500 ml in M at 12; 1400 ml in M at 10. Sparklecare Dry 12h+ covers M and L at 10+1 pieces.

Which channel buys which

This is what a specification sheet will not tell you, and it decides your range mix more than price does.

The same product, four vocabularies

The word on a purchase order, the word on a pharmacy shelf and the word on a care-home requisition are often not the same word. That gap is a real cost in this category — it is why buyers search for what adult diapers are called at all. Here is the translation table we use.

For the consumer-facing explanation — what each category is, how it is used, how it is applied — our guide to adult incontinence product types covers that ground. This page is about buying them; the current specification sheet sits on our adult incontinence product page.

Pant-Type vs Tape-Type: Which One Your Channel Needs

The difference between the two is not absorbency and not price band. It is who does the changing, and where the wearer is when it happens.

Tape-type (briefs). An open product with refastenable tape tabs at the waist, applied with the wearer lying down or standing against support. It can be opened and re-closed to check or adjust without removing the wearer's clothing, and the tabs reposition at every change. That makes it the default for anyone bed-bound, post-surgical, or changed by a carer on a schedule.

Pant-type (protective underwear, pull-ups). A closed, elasticised garment pulled on like underwear. Nothing to fasten, and it comes off by tearing the side seams rather than pulling it down. It is the default for anyone mobile, managing their own continence, for whom being hard to distinguish from underwear is the point.

Sizing. Measure the waist or hip at its widest point and size from that number, not from clothing size: clothing sizes vary by market and by decade, waist measurements do not. Our Sparklecare range covers a 28″–44″ (65–130 cm) waist in M and L, and the FlowX 1600 ml brief adds XL.

The two failure modes sit either side of the correct size. Too small and the leg cuffs cut in and wick; too large and the product gaps at the leg and leaks however much the core holds. That is why absorbency complaints are so often sizing complaints: a 1600 ml product on the wrong body leaks like a light pad.

For a market you are entering for the first time, a workable starting structure is one tape-type brief and one pull-up in the sizes you expect to sell most, plus a 60×90 cm underpad for bed protection. At a 10,000-pack minimum per product, a two- or three-product first order is a realistic way to prove the channel before committing to a full ladder.

Absorbency Levels in Millilitres, and How to Specify Them

The FlowX range runs in three absorbency bands: 1400 ml, 1500 ml and 1600 ml. Those figures belong to specific size and pack combinations — 1600 ml in XL, 1500 ml in L and M, 1400 ml in M — so the absorbency line and the size line on your specification are a single decision, not two.

A millilitre figure is a test result, not a property of the product. Change the fluid, the load, the duration or the point at which you stop the clock, and the same brief produces a different number. That is not a defect in the measurement. It is why an absorbency claim without a stated method is not a specification — and why "1600 ml" on two suppliers' quotations may describe two different products.

Six lines to put on the purchase order

1. The figure, and the SKU it belongs to. "1600 ml, XL, 10-piece pack" — not "maximum absorbency, adult".
2. The test method and the fluid. Name the standard your market uses for whole-product absorbency testing — BS ISO 11948-1 is the common one for urine-absorbing aids — and whether the fluid is saline or synthetic urine.
3. The tolerance. Absorbency varies lot to lot. State how far below the nominal figure a result may fall before the lot is rejected, not just the nominal figure.
4. What is being measured. Free-swell capacity and retention under load after compression are different numbers, and the second one predicts leaks.
5. The rewet figure. How much fluid returns to the skin under pressure — what the user experiences as "wet", and separate from how much the core can hold.
6. The retained sample. Keep one approved piece per SKU. Order two gets checked against that, not against this page.

One more line belongs on the specification, and buyers most often leave it off: the word on the pack. No international standard fixes what "light", "moderate", "heavy" or "overnight" mean in millilitres. If your brief says "heavy" or "overnight", agree which band it maps to and write both the word and the number. Treat the word as pack copy; the millilitre figure is the contract.

The two flat products are not the same product

Both are called "pads" in most catalogues. They are bought by different people for different reasons, and they are not interchangeable — so a quotation that compares them on unit price alone is not comparing like with like.

MOQ and What It Means for a First Order

Adult incontinence starts at 10,000 packs per product. That is the number to build a first order around, and it is the lowest entry point on any line we run.

Two things about that table. First, the units differ: the adult range and stock pads are quoted in packs, private-label pads and tampons in pieces. On one footing, a 10,000-pack adult minimum is 100,000 pieces at ten pieces to a pack — against 400,000 pieces for a private-label pad SKU. Second, "per product" means per product: it does not pool. Two briefs and one underpad is three minimums, not one.

Taking our brands and taking your own label are different thresholds. The 10,000-pack figure applies to Sparklecare and FlowX, where the pack is already designed and printed. Private label — your artwork, your film, your cartons, whether that means our pack with your mark on it or a design built from scratch — is quoted per project rather than off a rate card, because the printed pack, the proofing and the plates are paid for by the first run. Tell us the product, the pack and the market you are entering, and we will quote the private-label minimum alongside the price, before you commit to anything.

Where an MOQ comes from

An MOQ is not a sales policy, it is arithmetic. Printed film, cartons, artwork, proofing and line setup are all paid for by the first order, on every line in the plant. What varies is where the floor sits — and on the adult range we have set it at 10,000 packs per product, low enough that a distributor can enter with a range instead of a single trial SKU.

Buyers often ask why that is lower than the pad and tampon minima. The honest answer is that a minimum is a commercial decision as much as a technical one, and this is where we have chosen to set ours. If you need to know whether a particular product can go below it, ask: that is a conversation about your first order, not a category rule.

What a first order should contain

We do not publish a standard first-order template, because the right answer follows your channel rather than our catalogue. Five questions decide it:

1. Which channel is first, and what does it sell? A pharmacy chain, a tender and an e-commerce shop pull different products from the same factory.
2. What sizes and which absorbency band does your market need? Waist or hip data if you have it, and the band — 1400, 1500 or 1600 ml — that will carry your volume; the middle of your range is where reorders come from.
3. Bulk, private label, or one of our brands? Sparklecare covers adult care across the range, FlowX is built for high-repeat care, and both are available to distribute if you would rather skip label work.
4. Who holds registration in your market, and how long does it take? Start it in parallel with the order, not after it — it is usually the longest item on the timeline.
5. Will you reorder before the first run sells through? The right first quantity is the one you can sell twice.

Adding an adult line to an existing distribution business has its own logic — shelf space, channel fit and reorder rhythm — and our notes on adding adult diapers to your distribution line work through that decision. If you are launching under your own brand rather than distributing ours, start with the OEM/ODM process.

Material and Structure: What You Are Actually Buying

An adult brief is three functional layers, and almost every price difference between two suppliers of "the same" product sits in one of them.

Topsheet. Spunbond nonwoven is flat, strong and filament-based; hot-air nonwoven is loftier, softer against the skin and acquires fluid differently. Both are nonwovens and they do not cost the same, so name which one you are buying.

Core. Fluff pulp gives fast uptake and bulk; superabsorbent polymer holds fluid under pressure and lets the product be thinner. Their ratio is the biggest lever on absorbency and cost: more SAP buys absorbency per gram and a thinner product at higher material cost; more pulp buys bulk and lower cost at lower retention. It is also the answer to the commonest buyer question here — which product gives the best price-to-performance ratio for daily use. If two quotations for a "1600 ml" brief differ sharply, ask for the core ratio and the SAP loading before you ask for a discount.

Backsheet. Breathable PE film lets vapour out while holding fluid in; non-breathable PE film does not. On a body-worn brief, breathable is usually the retail and pharmacy specification. On an underpad, a fluid-proof backsheet is the point of the product, and non-breathable is not a downgrade there — it is the specification.

Read the three together and a quotation becomes comparable. Two suppliers can both quote a 1600 ml brief and mean different products: a spunbond topsheet over a high-pulp core with a non-breathable backsheet is a different purchase from a hot-air topsheet over a high-SAP core with a breathable backsheet, at the same stated absorbency. Ask for the three lines in writing and the price difference stops being mysterious.

The standards the line is produced to. Briefs and pull-ups: GB/T 28004.2-2021. Incontinence liners: GB/T 8939-2018. These are the Chinese national standards our adult line is produced against. If your market applies its own requirement, or your tender names a different method, say so at the specification stage rather than at the port.

Fragile skin and organic positioning. Two constructions are available: a non-woven incontinence pad and an organic cotton incontinence pad. For a range positioned around sensitive skin, what matters is the topsheet fibre and the absence of dye and fragrance — verifiable in the bill of materials, not the marketing copy. An organic claim needs chain-of-custody documentation covering the cotton itself, not a supplier declaration: ask for the certificate covering the grade you are buying.

Packaging Formats

Six pack formats, and choosing between them is a channel decision before it is a design decision.

Size identification is part of the packaging brief. In a stock room, picking the wrong size off a shelf is a recurring cost, and the fix sits on the pack. Tell us how your market identifies sizes — colour, size code, a clear M / L / XL block — and we build it into the artwork and the carton.

Packaging is also where MOQ comes from. A printed carton or film means artwork, proofing and plates before the line runs, and the first order pays for them — which is why pack choices and quantity thresholds belong in one conversation. Printed packaging is also what turns a bulk order into a private-label one; our private label process covers artwork, pack architecture and label compliance.

Lower-impact packaging is a substrate decision: paper cartons, mono-material film, plant-based and biodegradable films, reduced-plastic packs. Which one a product can use depends on the barrier it needs — a body-worn brief tolerates a different pack from an underpad going into a humid market — and any claim has to attach to the specific component, not to the product as a whole. Tell us the claim you want and we will confirm which construction and pack can carry it, and what the minimum becomes.

Certifications and Market Entry

Buyers in this category usually ask for certifications as a list. The more useful structure is three layers, because each is answered by a different party and settles at a different point in your timeline.

Layer 1 — the product. Materials, construction, absorbency and hygiene: what it is made of, what it is tested for, and what the pack may say. The standards named earlier sit here.

Layer 2 — the system behind the product. A documented quality management system, in-process and finished-goods testing, batch records and traceability. This is what a factory audit examines, and what lets a defect be traced to a lot rather than a shipment.

Layer 3 — the market entry. Registration, notification or permit in the destination, the labelling language, and the question that decides your timeline: who holds it.

Who registers what

The most common misunderstanding in this category is assuming that a factory's paperwork is the buyer's market entry. Usually it is not. Responsibility divides roughly like this:

We do not answer this question with a logo wall. Tell us the destination market, the channel and the construction you are buying, and we will confirm in writing what we can issue, what it is issued against, and which obligations sit with you as the importer — a document you can read before you commit, which is worth more than a badge on a page.

How to evaluate any supplier, including us

The same checklist applies whoever you buy from. It is short, and a supplier who will not answer it in writing has told you something useful.

• Does the supplier run the line, or resell someone else's? Ask which plant, which line, and for the address.
• Which standard is it produced to, and what does the test report cover? The construction you are buying, or a similar one? Those are different documents.
• Which layers are being quoted? Topsheet, core ratio, backsheet. A quotation that will not name them cannot be compared with another.
• Who holds registration in my market, and will you state it in writing?
• For overnight bed protection: what is the backsheet, the pad weight, and the rewet result? Overnight use is where a thin backsheet and a light core show up first, and it is the use case a care home judges the range on.
• Can I keep a retained sample from the run? Not a salesman's sample — one pulled from the lot that ships.

How to Order: Samples First

1. Send your specification — product family, absorbency in millilitres, size, pack count, quantity estimate, destination market.
2. We confirm and quote — including the specification, MOQ and lead time we can commit to for the product you asked about.
3. Sample — stock samples of the adult range are free and you cover the courier; they normally ship promptly. A custom construction is a development conversation rather than a stock sample: development cost and timing are quoted with it, and the plate or cylinder charge for a new printed pack is part of that quotation.
4. Approve — you approve the physical sample and, for private label, the artwork. The approved sample becomes the reference standard for the run.
5. Produce and ship — production, in-line checks, documents, shipment.

What to put in a sample request

Twelve items. Send them all and you will normally get a usable sample and an accurate quotation in one round instead of three:

1. destination country and sales channel
2. product family: tape-type brief, protective underwear, body-worn pad or underpad
3. absorbency in millilitres, and the size it belongs to
4. the waist or hip range you need to cover
5. pack count and pack format
6. estimated first order and annual volume — against a 10,000-pack minimum per product
7. bulk wholesale, private label, or one of our brands
8. artwork status, if private label
9. registration status in your market, and who holds it
10. material requirements: topsheet type, breathable or non-breathable backsheet, organic cotton
11. documents or test reports you need
12. incoterm and destination port

Leave items out and each becomes a question we have to ask before quoting — and that round trip costs you a week.

Where the product comes from

Our plant is in Jiangmen, Guangdong: over 50,000 m² in phase one, a Class 100,000 cleanroom and a Class 10,000 microbiology lab, manufacturing since 2001 and exporting to 80+ countries. One site, no overseas plants — which is why a specification approved with us is one the factory can still run next year. Our manufacturing overview covers the plant, the lines and how production is run.

If you are asking about machines because you are considering your own production line rather than placing an order: we quote product, not turnkey lines. Contract manufacturing is the realistic route to your own adult brand, and the first step is a specification, not a machine list.

Next step: send us your specification and we will confirm what we can commit to, quote it, and get samples moving. Request free samples · Contact our export team