Antigonish distillery adjusts to produce hand sanitizer.
Earlier this week, Steinhart Distillery in Antigonish County was preparing to start production of hand sanitizer.
A shipment of 8,000 bottles was scheduled to arrive as owner Thomas Steinhart drove to Halifax to pick up olive oil for the new product.
“I don’t do stress,” said Steinhart.
He’s had to remind himself of that mantra often over the past week as he watched the province preparing to shut down.
His bills won’t shut down as people stop going out to bars or the liquor store to buy his product.
Neither will those of the five people he employs through the winter season.
It was one of those employees who came up with the idea of making hand sanitizer as they brainstormed what to do last week. There is a shortage of it. And its primary ingredient is alcohol.
So began a frenzied few days of researching how to make it and phone calls to suppliers.
“Supply chains are really hard right now, everybody is buying everything,” said Steinhart.
There were no pump bottles to be ordered anywhere, nor could he find an inexpensive plastic solution, so it’s going in 500ml mickey glass jars.
What he and his employees came up with are two products – one using coconut oil as a moisturizer, and the other olive oil. Lemon and orange essential oils are used to make them smell nice.
“It’s all natural,” said Steinhart.
“We don’t use emulsifiers, there’s some debate over whether they’re good for you.”
Without emulsifiers you need to give the bottle a quick shake before applying it.
Bottles will sell for $15. Steinhart cautioned people that he’s not price gouging, but he’s also not a large factory dedicated to mass production of hand sanitizer.
Those factories, however, aren’t keeping up with the sudden demand occasioned by the spread of coronavirus. According to analytics firm Nielsen, North American hand sanitizer sales spiked 73 per cent in the four weeks ended Feb. 22. As the virus has spread, along with panic buying in the three weeks since, the product has become increasingly hard to find.
For every 10 bottles purchased Steinhart is committing to donate two to the area’s food bank.
Even as he rushed into production, there’s much left to figure out – namely how to get it to customers.
“I don’t know yet,” he said when asked about distribution.
“I’ll load up the truck, people can pay cash. We can sell online.”