ECJ EUROPEAN Cleaning Journal

A Scottish gin distillery has switched from producing spirits to making free hand sanitiser for vulnerable people.

Leith Spirits had to pay out £35,000 (€39,000) in duties to repurpose 1,000 litres of alcohol for sanitiser production. Working around the clock, the distillery has so far made 12,000 bottles of sanitiser which have been produced in accordance with WHO guidelines.

The bottles have been distributed to care homes, healthcare workers, police officers and elderly and vulnerable people around Leith. Co-founders Karin and Derek Mair have now appealed for donations of bottles and have set up a Crowdfunder page with a target of £1,000 (€1,100) to allow them to keep production going.

The company has been inundated with offers of support. All donations will be used to produce more hand sanitiser for the community.

Meanwhile, Scottish beer giant BrewDog is responding in a similar fashion to the crisis after learning that Aberdeen Royal Infirmary's Intensive Care Unit had run out of hand sanitiser. The company has been making its own brand - Punk Sanitiser - to help cover the shortfall during the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement, Brewdog confirmed that the company would do all it could to help people through this difficult period and would not be selling any of the product, but would be giving it away to people in need.

And Scotland's Deeside Distillery has been transforming surplus spirit into hand sanitiser and supplying frontline and primary care providers as well as care homes and medical centres with the products.