LET’s start at the end. Garry Watts, a bouncily affable host, is filling a bag for me with samples of his best new products.

“Here we go, some Scholl Party Feet blister-gel, some refresher spray, Durex lubricant, 12 ribbed condoms, one sachet of Durex Play massage gel, how about a Little Gem vibrator? It’s a big seller with ladies who don’t want anything too, erm...”

Threatening? “Yes. And two vibrating penis rings. Very popular in Spain,” he adds. “We sold 3m of them there.” Watts, chief executive of SSL International, the London-based multinational that owns Durex and Scholl, pops the packets into the now-bulging carrier, and offers me the oddly mixed bag with a smile. He’s not even blushing. Welcome to the house of fun.

Next month consumers will be seeing more of Watts’s new products when SSL advertises the Durex sex toys on television for the first time. Next week investors will have a chance to assess their contribution when SSL announces its interim results.

The figures are expected to show another surge in Durex-branded sales. Watts’s decision to widen the brand — for years the world’s biggest-selling condom — appears to be paying off, even if some have reservations. Boots refused to stock Durex vibrators after an outcry in the press two years ago. Others are merely anxious about where this could lead SSL, which only recently rebuilt its reputation after accusations of improper accounting six years ago. That was investigated by the Serious Fraud Office, and no charges were brought. But a lurch into sleaze seems the last thing it needs.

Sleaze, says 49-year-old Watts, doesn’t come into it. “All we are doing is stretching the condom business into fun,” he says. “Promoting a healthy sex life is not an incredible shift from promoting a responsible sex life.”

And chatting in his modest second-floor office in an unremarkable building near London’s Blackfriars Bridge, Watts looks anything but a slick porn-peddler. Blond-haired and burly, speaking with a breathless lisp, he lollops round his products like a rumpled labrador.

Trained as an accountant at KPMG, he joined SSL as finance director in 2000 — just as its results were being queried — before taking the top slot in 2003 and radically reorganising the group’s approach. He is adamant that the press simply has to stop sniggering, and start appreciating SSL’s creativity.

But penis rings? “It’s our fastest-growing product,” he says straight-faced. He rips open a red packet to show me. “Bzzzzz” goes the little plastic vibrator on the end of what looks suspiciously like an upmarket rubber band. “It lasts 15 minutes and retails at £4.99,” he adds, not the slightest bit sheepish. And they are already available in supermarkets as well as Superdrug and Boots.

It is this potential for profit, more than anything, that fuels Watts’s determination to reposition the Durex brand. SSL, created by the merger of Seton Scholl and London International in 1999, has been through the wringer since 2000, disposing of subsidiaries — Marigold industrial gloves, Biogel surgical gloves, Hibi antiseptics — like an end-of-business sale. It still owns a clutch of well-known names such as Durex, Scholl, Syndol and Meltus, but it is small fry compared with huge global rivals such as Procter & Gamble (P&G). A global brand like Durex, which has terrific name recognition, needs to work harder.

“We had to get some drive behind the company,” says Watts. “And we had to get people’s heads up here. We’d been busy selling businesses, and we didn’t want to turn this company round just by slashing costs. We had to get people passionate about these brands, and we had to back them, and what drives any consumer company on is bringing new products out.”

Yet somehow, he points out, people don’t seem as interested in the Scholl innovations as they are in the Durex Play range. He laughs. Human nature has its quirks.

Former colleagues credit Watts with revitalising SSL. He has also brought more women into influential positions, emphasised “fun” in the corporate culture and committed the company to good causes. And he has done it all with relentless energy. Married twice, with three children, Watts commutes from a new home in Scotland to SSL’s bases in London and Manchester. Nobody doubts his stamina.