A vaping company has switched its production focus to making hand sanitiser and joined forces with the National Care Association to provide essential PPE to some of the UK’s most vulnerable frontline workers.
Vape Dinner Lady has repurposed a production line at its manufacturing base in Blackburn and created 24 new jobs to produce hand sanitiser in order to help meet unprecedented demand from key workers during and beyond the coronavirus pandemic.
In addition to producing hand sanitiser VDL has used its strong sourcing network to import thousands of bottles of WHO-standard hand sanitiser face masks and clinical PPE into the UK to answer immediate demand.
Vape Dinner Lady Chief Executive, Mohammed Patel, said: “The business feels it is vital to support those in need at this critical time particularly those in small businesses within the care sector who are often over-looked by large scale corporate donations.
“Teaming up with National Care Association we will help support those most in need at this difficult time with the best interests of our loyal customers and community at heart. We were moved by the issues raised by the NCA, particularly those facing privately run care homes across the country and we wanted to help.”
Vape Dinner Lady Chief Marketing Officer, John Taylor adds, “Using our extensive distribution network, Vape Dinner Lady will ensure that the product we have sourced gets to the front line and to those that most need it.”
Vape Dinner Lady will initially donate 10,000 individual-use hand sanitisers to frontline care workers working within care homes in the National Care Association network. This is especially important as experts predict the use of hand sanitiser will now become the norm, even after the coronavirus pandemic is over.
Nadra Ahmed OBE has been Chairperson of NCA since 2001 and has been involved in the field of social care for over 35 years.
She said: “All forms of PPE are essential for frontline staff in the fight against this virus and the demand across the UK is enormous. We expect the the demand for these items to continue over the coming months if not years. We believe it is crucial for our workforce to have access hand sanitisers in general but to personal use hand sanitiser bottles at this time is essential.
So we’re delighted to receive this extremely generous donation from Vape Dinner Lady – it will provide reassurance and protection for carers right across the country at a time when their role in supporting some of the most vulnerable citizens in our communities is crirical.”
The new production line in Blackburn was repurposed within days and at full capacity can produce 10.5 million bottles of Sanditize hand sanitiser annually (market value of £26m). Unprecedented demand has led to the immediate creation of 24 new full-time positions and orders received from a series of national high-street retailers.
The business is also eyeing up a £500k expansion plan to deliver projected sales, due to be announced later in 2020.
