Faced with the coronavirus epidemic, several spirit groups and distilleries are making their alcohol available to produce hand sanitizer.
Several distilleries and spirit groups are mobilizing to supply alcohol to hospitals and pharmacies and producers of hand sanitizer.
The world affected by the COVID-19 pandemic is facing a possible shortage of hand sanitizer. This product is essential to disinfect our hands, a vital gesture to prevent the spread of the virus.
Pernod-Ricard in France is one of the largest spirits groups. On Wednesday, it announced that it was redirecting part of its production to hydroalcoholic gel and the alcohol that this product creates. This in order to be able to provide hospitals and fight the progression of the coronavirus.
The company will make available “stocks of alcohol that will allow the manufacture of hydroalcoholic gel“. A total of 70,000 liters destined to the Cooper laboratory which supplies all French pharmacies, to avoid shortages.
Thanks to this donation, Cooper will be able to increase its shipments of alcohol to pharmacies that produce hand sanitizer. That is to say, 1.8 million individual 50ml bottles.
Other regions of France have also made themselves available. Distilleries such as Maison Ferroni in Marseille and Alambic Bourguignon in Beaune represented by Matthieu Sabbagh.
In the rest of the world, spirits companies are also collaborating with the initiative, such as Altia in Finland, Absolut Vodka in Sweden, Pernod Ricard Spain in Spain, Irish Distillers in Ireland and various distilleries in the United States, such as Old Fourth Distillery, based in Atlanta, Shine Distillery, Durham Distillery, Moonshine Distillery, among others.
Other industries
Other food industries such as Tereos sugar factories (the second largest in the world and one of the leaders in alcohol production) and Cristal Union also join this initiative. Tereos announced in a statement “we are committing five of our factories to the production of hydroalcoholic gel.
The production will be able to reach 11,000 liters per week, and will be made available free of charge to regional health agencies in France and hospitals in surrounding regions, which are in critical situations.
Cristal Union will concentrate on the production of ethyl alcohol for the pharmaceutical industry and biotechnologies.
It should be noted that the luxury group LVMH had opened the way by announcing on Sunday that its perfume branch would manufacture hydroalcoholic gels made available to the French health authorities free of charge.
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