Edinburgh Covid hand sanitiser start-up has £30m in sights

An Edinburgh-headquartered venture launched just 12 weeks ago in response to the coronavirus outbreak has bagged business that could be worth as much as £30 million.

ClearWater Hygiene, which was founded by property developer Andrew Montague and his wife Rachel, produces high grade, UK-manufactured hand sanitiser aimed at frontline workers and the wider public.

ClearWater Hygiene, which was founded by property developer Andrew Montague and his wife Rachel, produces high grade, UK-manufactured hand sanitiser aimed at frontline workers and the wider public.

The sanitiser is produced at Deeside Gin Distillery in Banchory and bottled in Preston, Lancashire. It contains 80 per cent ethanol liquid making it suitable for use in hospitals, care homes and other public health facilities.

The fledgling firm has already agreed deals, some of which are multi-year agreements, with an expected total contract value of £30m. It has secured more than £3m in actual revenue since its launch in March.

Montague said: “As lockdown was being announced in March, we immediately saw the importance of reducing our reliance on imports and focusing on UK manufacturing to ensure both health providers and private businesses could access high quality and fairly priced products which are now essential in the battle against the pandemic.

“We are proud to be providing some much-needed support in the fight against Covid-19 by gifting our product to NHS charities while, at the same time, building a successful business.

“From a standing start just 12 weeks ago, we have seen a huge surge in demand for our products across the UK. We’re continuing to secure significant contracts and we’ve ramped up production to 900,000 litres per week.”

He added: “I think our success has come from our ability to address concerns about product or supply failures. Our production processes are all UK-based and we offer an extremely high quality, independently certified product.”

James Horton from law firm CMS, one of ClearWater Hygiene’s key business advisers, said: “Andrew and Rachel have been phenomenal in the speed of their response to this public health crisis.

“They not only identified a market opportunity but have also helped address some of the essential supply issues in combating Covid-19 in the UK. In a few short weeks they have pulled together production, design and packaging providers in different parts of the UK and are well on their way to building a successful and sustainable business.”

A number of businesses have switched some production to making hand sanitiser since the start of the outbreak.

In May, whisky giant Chivas Brothers was named NHS Scotland’s first pro-bono supplier of hand sanitiser.

The Scotch whisky business of global spirits group Pernod Ricard said it was committed to providing more than 50,000 500ml bottles of much-needed hand sanitiser by the end of June. Its sanitiser is made at Plymouth Gin distillery and packaged at Chivas in Dumbarton.

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