40 (very strange) ways to use Halen Môn products
HALEN Môn is rightly lauded for its award-winning sea salt but it is far from being a singleproduct business.
The Anglesey firm also has a growing range of lesser known products which are starting to have an impact on its bottom line. And two of these are being put to some unexpected uses.
From Venus Flytrap food to cigar humidors, its distilled water has found a niche market that, at the last count, is being used in 40 different ways.
Another little known Halen Môn product is its “bittern” – a magnesium-rich solution which is being used to treat racehorses – and even racing camels.
Both are by-products of the company’s salt-making process.
Or, as co-owner David LeaWilson prefers to call them, they are the “co-products” of a system where as little as possible goes to waste.
He said the firm was con- stantly looking to maximise the use of its raw material, and optimise its processes.
“It sets us apart from others in the industry,” he said.
“Not only does it give us a competitive advantage, it lowers our carbon footprint.”
It was this approach that last week saw Halen Môn collect one of the UK’s most coveted business awards. In its 21st year of business, the firm truly came of age with the announcement it had won the The Queen’s Award for Sustainable Devel- opment.
The award recognises a slew of environmental commitments at the company’s Brynsiencyn base. Not only has it invested in solar power, it has planted a wildflower meadow and re-purposed an old telephone box as a greenhouse to grow chilli and tomato plants.
Even old manufacturing equipment has been recycled as signposts around the firm’s Saltcote headquarters.
Halen Môn distilled water – collected once salt has been WHY boil and condense so much seawater, only to then discard it?
Halen Môn’s has been slowly growing the market for its distilled water: just about the only thing you can’t do with it is drink it!
Cleaning exotic extracted – is used by one company to produce “gigantic bubble” kits.
Bottles are also sold on Amazon, and these have attracted a variety of slightly surreal claims for the product’s benefits.
Some buyers claim it is the perfect “clean” fuel for their model steam trains. Others feed it to exotic plants for the same reason: one owner of a Venus Fly Trap swears by it.
Vinyl lovers use it as a means of keeping their records squeaky clean, while one man plants, vinyl records and telescopes.
Bubble-making kits.
Steam mops and irons
Producing steam for model engines.
Making DIY cosmetics and artists’ acrylics.
In custom-made PC water loops. buys it regularly for his cigar humidor.
Others brush their teeth in it for a Hollywood smile, an artist uses it to dilute her acrylics for the perfect hues and people buy it to clean telescope lenses.
Bittern, the mineral-dense distillate left over from the extraction process, has found favour with horse owners looking for natural products. In the racing world, where fear of drug contamination is rife, the product is in demand as a nutritional supplement.