Glenora lends hand with sanitizer during pandemic

SYDNEY — The same pursuit of perfection that goes into the sought-after whisky from the Glenora Distillery has gone into a new product over the past two months.

The Mabou distillery is among others in the region that have changed some aspects of production to fill a void for hand sanitizer during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“For everybody, it's been a work in progress, but we know we are being appreciated by essential services and the health-care community and the people themselves,” said Lauchie Maclean, Glenora

Distillers president.

“We very much are proud of what we've been able to do, and hopefully we will be able to continue to provide product even at a more economical basis in the future as some of the bottles and the packaging and everything else becomes more available to us.”

Maclean said making sanitizer has always been possible for the distillery and was something Glenora had been considering just before the COVID-19 crisis amped up.

He said through trial and error and some formula sharing with other distilleries, they were able to perfect a product.

Some new infrastructure was needed, and the Atlantic Canada Opportunities Agency is expected to announce some $70,000 worth of funding for that in the coming days.

Maclean said bottling the product has been the big challenge as bottles, sprays and pumps have become scarce these days. There also isn't much of a profit margin in sanitizer products, and it's creation is more of a service to essential workers, he said.

It does somewhat help the bottom line, however, as demand for their regular products slows during the pandemic. Word about the spirits market is that people are still drinking and socializing but at home with a more economical type of alcohol.

“Even though our online sales have increased, I would say overall sales are probably down,” said Maclean.

Glenora also has a distinctive tourism component to its operation through distillery tours, a pub and an inn. Maclean said they are planning for some sort of soft opening in June if regulations allow. That tourism aspect of the business will see a significant impact even after governments allow for reopenings.

The hope at the distillery is also to be able to host 30thanniversary activities, including the launch of a related product, in the fall.

Glenora Distillery started producing Helping Hands hand sanitizer about two months ago as shortages of that product became noticeable.