Gin distillery lends a helping hand to sanitiser shortage

IN normal circumstances, The Distillery in Kensington would be using its fully functioning basement distillery to create the famous Portobello Road Gin.

However, the owners of the London gin maker have taken the decision to re-purpose some of their equipment to meet the growing demand of hand sanitiser the capital’s key workers desperately need.

Jake Burger, the co-founder of Portobello Road Gin, along with his team, have answered the call from the Metropolitan Police and have agreed to use their wealth of experience to make hand sanitisers for police officers on the job.

Me Burger said: “Obviously, due to the coronavirus situation hand sanitiser is in short supply across the country, but we are able to repurpose some of our equipment and capitalise on our experience handling high strength ethanol to quickly step in and produce one to a formula recommended by the World Health Organisation.”

He said their online store is still open, but they have tasked almost all of their staff with the production of the sanitiser to make sure they can get the orders out to the police as soon as possible.

They plan to produce around 1,500 bottles a week.

On being able to offer their support to fight Covid-19, Jake said: “If we here at Portobello Road Gin and The Distillery can help, in even the smallest way, to try and keep frontline workers safe and well during the crisis then we will endeavour to do so.

“Our first batch should be with the force in the days ahead and then we intend to provide as much to them as we can for as long as it is required.”