Wax Lyrical, in Lindal-in-Furness, Ulverston, has made a staggering 10,000 hand sanitisers for staff at University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT) who are working tirelessly to help patients through the Covid-19 pandemic.
The business switched from producing luxury, 100% fragrance candles, reed diffusers and essential oils, to making hand sanitisers after seeing an increase in demand across the UK. The hand sanitisers for NHS staff are 70% alcohol, no perfume, no colour.
Rosie Wicks, a Product Developer at Wax Lyrical, was alerted that FGH needed additional hand sanitisers by her dad Andy Wicks, who is the Chief Information Officer for UHMBT. Production began last Thursday with a minimum of staff on site, per shift, to adhere to the Government’s two-metre distancing guidelines with support staff working from home.
Wax Lyrical is now aiming to make around 400,000 units, per week, for other local and national NHS organisations and will look to start making a small number for the public available via its website from next Monday. A surface spray which has the same 70% alcohol content will also be available.
Rosie said: “My dad told me that the Trust was looking to source extra hand sanitiser, at Furness General Hospital, especially. I alerted Jacqui Gale our Managing Director who was only too happy to help and the team set about production.
“The formulation has been made in conjunction with an industry expert that has tailored it to our fragrance and manufacturing equipment. All of which has been tested in our in-house laboratory. This is the first time we have made any sanitising product. We have made alcohol based diffusers for a number of years; in fact we were the first manufacturer of diffusers in the UK. As we use alcohol it gave us the idea and challenge to see if we could make an alcohol sanitiser based product.”
Jacqui Gale, Managing Director, added: “One of our business values is agility. Given the sudden change in the UK and understanding the immediate demand in the NHS for sanitising products, we challenged our own values to see how agile we can be. We had the basics of an alcohol-based product, a manufacturing facility in the UK and a team who all agreed to find a way to make a suitable product that could help keep the country safe.
"We expected 2020 to be all about our 40th year anniversary, celebrating our people and innovations. However, as the world has changed so quickly we are pleased to be able to adapt and respond with all our team being supportive and going out of their way to ensure we can support the NHS and country in these uncertain times. We hope that by being able to make sanitising products this will ease the burden on the NHS and help save lives.”
Sue Smith, OBE, Deputy Chief Executive and Executive Chief Nurse for UHMBT, met the team on Friday to thank them for their generosity. She was given a tour of the production process and laboratory where the team develop and test products.
Sue said: “I want to say a massive thank you to Wax Lyrical for stepping in to help our teams who are working tirelessly to ensure patient care and safety is the best that it can be during the Covid-19 pandemic.”