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DUMBARTON company Chivas Brothers Ltd distillery is helping the fight against coronavirus by producing and packaging hand sanitiser for the NHS.

The local Pernod Ricard-owned business is using its ready access to ethanol and strong relationships with sanitiser manufacturers to get bottles distributed to the local area.

A spokesperson at Chivas Brothers told the Reporter: “It made perfect sense that we should repurpose some of our current operations to facilitate the production and distribution of hand sanitiser that is in such high demand across the UK.”

The company received a consignment of 4,000 litres of hand sanitiser gel ready to be packaged at its bottling plant in Kilmalid, Dumbarton.

Another 15,000 litres will be produced at Pernod Ricard’s Plymouth Gin Distillery, taking the total amount of hand sanitiser being packaged over the coming weeks to 19,000 litres, where it will then be redistributed to a number of charities in Scotland and England as well as healthcare works and key services in and around the West Dunbartonshire area.

READ MORE Company is supporting care workers

As well as packaging sanitiser, Chivas is also supplying 68,000 litres of ethanol from their Strathclyde grain distillery in Glasgow which will then be converted into roughly 120,000 litres of hand sanitiser for frontline NHS workers.

Liam Donegan, manufacturing director at Chivas Brothers, said: “Community has been at the heart of our company for generations, and we hope that through these efforts and more, we can give a little something back to the areas in which we operate.

“We hope the Dunbartonshire community – and all of our communities around the UK – are staying safe and healthy at this testing time.”