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CEO Warns Clorox Wipes Won't Be Fully Stocked in Stores Until Summer

"We're shipping to our stores every single day," Clorox CEO Benno Dorer said. "But what we're shipping is pretty much scooped up right away. So it's gone after a few minutes”

Clorox disinfecting wipes
Daniel Acker/Bloomberg via Getty Images

If you’re out of Clorox wipes, it’s entirely possible you’ll stay that way until the summer.

The chairman and CEO of Clorox, Benno Dorer, told Yahoo Finance in an interview he expects it’s going to be “touch and go” until this summer when it comes to re-stocking stores shelves with the in-demand disinfectant wipes.

He said the company has already increased production by 40% but can’t keep their products on the shelves.

“So if you go to stores, we're shipping to our stores every single day. But what we're shipping is pretty much scooped up right away. So it's gone after a few minutes,” Dorer explained. “Clearly there's an unprecedented demand spike for some of our products, in particular wipes. We've seen spikes of up to 500% in terms of demand and no supply chain in our industry is built to satisfy that demand increase in a short period of time.”

Dorer added Clorox has added third-party suppliers to help, invested in “further capacity” and is speeding up production lines.

“And we think that there's going to be substantial improvement this summer,” he said. “It's going to be touch and go until then, unfortunately, but help is on the way and I think should ease up in the next few months.”

Another cleaning product giant, Lysol, did not immediately respond to TODAY’s request for comment, though company representatives have previously said they ramped up production.

On April 15, Lysol posted a status addressing the shortage.

“As demand remains extraordinarily high, we recognize that it is difficult to locate products that you may be looking for,” the company wrote on Twitter. “We sincerely apologize for this inconvenience and ask that you hang in there with us!”

This story first appeared on TODAY.com. More from TODAY:

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