The decision by the Antigua Distillery Ltd. to diversify its product offerings by switching it production to meet the demand for hand sanitizers has won the company much praise and commendation.
On Tuesday, Trade Minister, E. P Chet Greene led a tour of the production facilities at ADL adjacent to the Deep Water Harbour in St. John’s.
The move by the company takes on added significance as it fits nicely into the government’s policy objective to wean the country off its near total dependence on tourism and to develop other sectors of the economy, notably, manufacturing and agriculture.
The COVID-19 pandemic has created a worldwide demand for hand and other sanitizers, which has led to global shortages of these products.
In an attempt to meet the local and regional demand, ADL used the alcohol it produces for its spirits to produce three products under its Novirus brand; one a hand sanitizer gel with local aloes, a regular hand sanitizer and a sanitizer to clear surfaces.
“All our products are reasonably priced and are available locally. They were produced to specification established by the World Health Organisation (WHO) which also mandated that such products should not include fragrances as these may lead to skin irritation for some consumers,” said Cheif Executive Officer Anthony Bento.
According to company Global Marketing Manager, Calbert Francis, already the company is shipping the products to several neighbouring islands. These include St Kitts, Nevis, Barbados, and Anguilla with negotiations underway to have the products shipped to St Lucia as well.
He explained that the company utilizes an intra-regional shipping vessel to get the products from island-to-island. However, Francis said shipping to some territories currently poses a problem.
Minister Greene gave a commitment to assist the company work out these issues ‘as best as the ministry can’. However, the minister said he was heartened to see the operations at ADL, especially to see that the company has been able to spring into action in a ‘very short period of time’ to produce the sanitizers.
He commended the company for its creativity in utilizing local aloes in one of the products since this gives a boost to local agricultural production.
“We can now say to our farmers that they now have a ready market for aloes; this is the creation of a niche market,” he noted. The trade minister also made a call for residents to support local products.
“I want to appeal directly to local consumers. We now have world-class sanitizing products made local, by a local company that has been around for decades. “As minister of trade, I want to appeal directly to you, buy local, support local, support local industries as we support Antigua and Barbuda,” he emphasized.
2 responses to “Antigua Distillery now making ‘NoVirus’ hand sanitizers”
That’s commendable, I like that,local, I can’t wait.Congrats.🇦🇬🇦🇬🇦🇬👏👏👏
Good job