Results showed Axford was often ineffective early in the season when he toed only the edge of the rubber.

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But in those businesses Top Glove doesn't have the same edge, namely, proximity to rubber plantations.

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Top Glove, which gets 80% of its sales from latex gloves, has been smart enough to diversify and, like its U.S. rivals, is making nitrile gloves, using a nonallergenic synthetic product, but in doing so it loses an edge: its proximity to its Malaysia's rubber plantations.

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