Home fragrance manufacturer, Wax Lyrical, adapts its factory to produce hand and surface sanitiser to supply the NHS and care services as the demand for PPE increases.
In a bid to address the national shortage of sanitiser, Wax Lyrical has adapted its Cumbria-based facility, which usually manufacture candles, reed diffusers and other home fragrances, to create 65% alcohol hand sanitisers and surface sprays.
Production began last week at the factory, which is using its liquid lines to manufacture the sought-after sanitiser and the first delivery of 10,000 units was made to its local hospital, Furness General Hospital in Barrow-in-Furness. While Wax Lyrical aims to also make the sanitiser available for the public to buy, initially the supply is being prioritised for the NHS, care homes, hospices and pharmacies.
Warren Gell, Global Commercial Director of Wax Lyrical, said: "Our priority is to continue to support our staff, our local community and our lovely customers, and we're so pleased to have the facilities to be able to help in some way. "To produce an essential product for dedicated front-line workers is a way that our facilities could be put to such important use. I'm so proud of the team at Wax Lyrical who have worked together to prepare for this production in just a matter of days."
Wax Lyrical has reported having the capabilities to manufacture up to 1 million units of sanitiser per week and in a call for help from suppliers to achieve this volume the team have been overwhelmed by the response.
Warren Gell added: "From HMT offering to transport the sanitiser free of charge, to Olympus Print who provided extraordinary next day delivery, among many other businesses who have reopened and created crisis teams to support us, it's been truly heart-warming to hear from businesses who are also desperate to help the nation in some way." Wax Lyrical Head of Laboratory & Innovation Dr Will Locke, has worked alongside personal care manufacturing specialist Jeremy Thomas to create a new sanitiser formula and the liquid lines in the factory, which are usually used to manufacture reed diffuser fragrances, have been converted to pump the alcohol for the sanitisers, all within a matter of days. Warren Gell added: "Our priority is to continue to support our staff, our local community and our lovely customers, and we're so pleased to have the facilities to be able to help in some way."
Following the supply to front-line workers, the sanitiser will later be made available to the public in 60ml hand sanitisers and 100ml surface sprays.
The formula is 65% alcohol, fragranced with lemon and verbena, and designed to be kind to skin.The new hand sanitiser and surface sprays are BRC certified and all the ingredients are EU approved.
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