Distillery makes sanitizer to hand out
Business fills bottles for police, nursing homes or anyone who stops in
LANSDALE » A pair of local businesses have used this week’s coronavirus closings to shake up their normal concoctions and start mixing up some sanitizer instead.
Lansdale-based Boardroom Spirits and GSL Organics, formerly of Lansdale and now online only, both say their sanitizers are moving out almost as fast as they can make them.
“We’re trying to give out rations, four or five ounces to anyone who needs it. We’re also supporting the police, and a lot of nursing homes are calling us up,” said Boardroom owner Marat Mamedov.
“Bring hydrogen peroxide ... bring your own bottle, we’ll fill you up,” he said.
Boardroom has been located on West Third Street in Lansdale since 2015, and in their main tasting room on Thursday afternoon, staff collected travel-size plastic bottles from customers and took the bottles back to a distilling room where the sanitizer was being made. Ethanol, which is a byproduct of the vodkas and other distilled items made by Boardroom, is the main ingredient, Mamedov said, along with glycerin to keep hands from drying out, hydrogen peroxide, and water.
“It’s highly flammable, and people should not drink it, but we give a few ounces to people who need it. It kind of puts things in perspective when even the police can’t get stuff,” he said.
As Mamedov explained the process, Robert Stanley of Lansdale held a water bottle-sized jar as staff filled it about halfway with sanitizer, and Jennifer Syzc of Hatfield took back several small bottles she brought to be refilled by staff. Stanley said he’s been working from home with his wife and two kids and hadn’t heard about Boardroom before but plans to visit again.
“My kids being home is not normal, but other than that, it’s not bad. I didn’t know this place was here — I’m not a drinker, per se, but
I’ll take a New Years’ Eve drink, or a toast,” he said.
Syzc said she heard about Boardroom from a friend and bought two bottles of hydrogen peroxide at a local CVS pharmacy after hearing it would help make more sanitizer.
“I thought I would come by and fill up a little bit. I’ve never been here, but that cranberry vodka’s looking pretty good,” she said.
Mamedov said Boardroom’s doors are open from 7 or 8 a.m. until 7 to 9 p.m. weekdays, and said they plan to keep offering sanitizer as long as it’s needed; those looking to support the company and its efforts can buy a bottle or two of the normal distilled spirits, like
Cranberry Infused Vodka, Ginger Vodka, Triple Sec, or gin.
“Could we charge for it? Yeah, but at this point in time, we’d rather just do the right thing and help the community,” he said, of the free sanitizer.
In another business, Candy Pack, owner of GSL Organics, said while she’s now online-only and no longer located on Green Street (or Main Street) in Lansdale, it was a regular customer from the Lansdale area who prompted her to start mass-producing sanitizer during this crisis.
“She sent me a text message saying ‘Do you have any hand sanitizer?’ I said yes, and she said the stores are out of it. I said, ‘OK, well I have plenty,’” Pack said.
Each day this week, Pack said, she has sold between 150 and 200 bottles of hand sanitizer, and has already worked around one bottleneck: bottles.
“We had to switch over to some other bottles we had in stock, because the shipping everywhere is delayed. What used to take me two or three days to get, now takes me five to seven days to get,” she said.
“We started using what we had in stock, that weren’t our normal bottles, but bottles we might use for other things. We starting putting the hand sanitizer in that, so some people have different types of bottles, but now I’m kind of ahead of the game a little bit,” Pack said.
Several local pharmacies and a Whole Foods have already placed orders for GSL’s all-natural sanitizer, and Pack said she’s gotten calls from as far away as a nursing facility in Florida for orders. For now, she’s working seven days a week, eight to 12 hours per day, with help from husband Freddie, to fill orders, shipping 60 to 75 packages each day and posting tips about skin care on the company’s Facebook and Instagram pages.
“We still have some people ordering that don’t even have hand sanitizer in their order — every time we get one of those, I say ‘Yay, something different,’” Pack said. “All of my Lansdale people are still shopping with me. It’s been a blessing, for sure.”