Thunder Bay’s Sleeping Giant Brewing Company has retooled their business to help accommodate the need in our community for hand sanitizer.
When the pandemic first hit, the company received many calls asking if they could make the sanitizer but they didn’t have the ability to distill a high enough content of alcohol.
That’s when the company took action and decided to source ingredients so they could fill that need.
“We spent many weeks trying to source the ingredients and figured out a way to use our equipment to mix it and can the liquid sanitizer,” said Co-owner Andrea Mulligan.
The first delivery of the sanitizer went to Ontario’s Ornge air ambulance service.
“Our first delivery was 80 cases to Ornge, which my cousin actually works for and so I’m really proud and grateful of our team to help make that happen, that we can help people out in such a difficult time. It’s a win-win,” Mulligan said.
Mulligan says they received bulk orders from the City of Thunder Bay as well.
“They are distributing to our front line workers, police, fire, and such, and what was unexpected is that a number of local businesses are reaching out to us since they can’t get a hold of sanitizer for their employees including daycares and we are able to offer them that local option to help satisfy their safety needs,” Mulligan adds.
The liquid hand sanitizer is made with the World Health Organization’s recommended recipe but Mulligan says “it’s really no-frills since it doesn’t include aloe vera gel, it’s liquidy and smells like alcohol, but does the job and keeps you safe.”
The co-owner says it comes in a beer can so you can put a lid on it or transfer it to a different container once you open it.
Orders are taken over the phone or through the company’s website and you pick up at a later date in at the Sleeping Giant Brewing Company’s Barrel House at 750 MacDonell Street.
The first batch they did was 3,000 litres, the second batch was scaled up to produce almost 6,000 litre batches for the next few weeks and then the company will reevaluate if they need to continue to make large batches.
“We are just so grateful because our business has taken some revenue hits because of COVID-19 so we are just thankful for the support of our business and all local businesses,” Mulligan said.
