The Spirit of Manchester Sanitiser – Switching Production from Gin to Support the Frontline

News

Last week we turned production over from gin to hand sanitiser. We’ve done this to support the NHS Nightingale Hospital North West. The NHS and army assembled the 750-bed hospital in just two weeks at Manchester Central Convention Centre – right above our lovely arches.

Like all frontline services, the hospital was struggling to source hand sanitiser. As you’ll probably be aware, the whole country is suffering from a shortage of it. When the hospital approached us to supply them, it was really a no brainer for us. Manchester Central are a key partner of ours so we’re honoured to be able to play a small part in their efforts to support our key workers. 

HOW HAVE WE DONE IT?

Aside from sourcing the secondary ingredients – glycerin and hydrogen peroxide – switching production over was relatively easy. The main ingredient is alcohol, which we unsurprisingly have a healthy supply of! We’re used to working on this sort of scale, so using the WHO-approved recipe, we’ve set up Wonder Wend, our lovely 1,000-litre still, to take on the task of producing sanitiser instead of gin.

WHO CAN WE HELP?

We’ve already supplied 200 bottles to the NHS Nightingale and are delivering a further 1,200 this week. Now that we’ve switched production over, we want to help as many frontline services as possible. So we’re now open to all key services and charities who are struggling to source this essential protective product. 

We’re selling the sanitiser at no profit to help keep costs as low as possible for those frontline businesses.

IS OUR SANITISER AVAILABLE TO THE PUBLIC?

Currently, we aren’t selling directly to the public because…

  1. We want to make sure every bottle gets to those who need it most – the people working on the frontline who are providing essential services to keep our country fighting against COVID-19.
  2. The shortage of bottles and pumps. Having never seen the demand so high for hand sanitiser, we’re suffering as a country from a huge shortage in suitable bottles and pumps. Therefore to help combat this, we encourage you to purchase sanitiser in bulk. Try to only buy as many individual bottles as are needed and these can be almost endlessly refilled.

Unfortunately, no matter how much sanitiser we produce, if we run out of containers, the supply chain stops and we can’t get this key product to the people who need it.

HOW CAN YOU ORDER OUR SANITISER?

We encourage all frontline businesses and charities who are struggling to source sanitiser to get in touch with us. We can produce it quickly so can hopefully keep you well-stocked throughout this challenging time and make your day-to-day work a little safer. 

You can contact the distillery directly at [email protected] with your query and we’ll do what we can to help.

Sign up to our newsletter

We sometimes send out news, promotions and drinks suggestions so if you’d like us to keep you informed, please fill out the below details.

Please note you must be over 18 years of age and we never sell your data to third parties.

Newsletter

  • DD slash MM slash YYYY
  • This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
×