Coronavirus prompts 3 Beaufort Co. businesses to create, sell their own hand sanitizer
Nearly every business in Beaufort County is having to adapt as coronavirus continues to spread and change the way business is done.
A Hilton Head Island distillery, a Frogmore farm-to-table food company, and a Beaufort soap shop are sidelining their regular production to create hand sanitizer.
None of the three had sold the sanitizer prior to the coronavirus pandemic, but all recently saw an extreme need and knew they might be able to help.
Joe Fenten, owner of Hilton Head Distillery and Dark Corner Distillery in Greenville, said the Hilton Head location has shifted it’s production to hand sanitizer. He said the idea to make to make the switch was an obvious one early on.
“If there’s a sanitizer shortage and alcohol is the base ingredient for it, why not use our products for it?,” he asked.
A couple Sundays ago, Fenten met with his team and the group decided to pursue the idea.
By the next day, they were ordering the raw materials and learning how to make the products safely and legally.
Since then, the product has taken off. Hilton Head Distillery has made 1,500 gallons so far, delivering it throughout the region and state.
“We’ve gotten an unbelievable amount of support and interest from people all over America,” Fenten said. “The demand was bigger than I thought.”
He said the company has always had the community in mind, focusing on how to get the hand sanitizer where it’s needed most to keep people safe and clean. That ranges from a smaller group, such as a nursing home that needs just a couple bottles a week to a larger group, such as Michelin workers who are responsible for making tires for first responders’ vehicles.
As the distillery wraps up its second week of production, it’s continuing to adapt and rework its plans. The business next is partnering with local retailers such as Ace Hardware to sell their product in stores. It also plans to donate a bottle to an organization in need for every bottle sold.
“It’s weird to never have thought of making hand sanitizer a week ago to (it) being a formidable piece of the hand sanitizer demand around the world right now,” Fenten said.
On the opposite side of the county in Frogmore on St. Helena Island, Seaside Grown — a subsidiary company of Seaside Farm (a 115-year-old family-owned tomato farm) that produces products like Bloody Mary mix and salsa — began using its bottling facility to mass produce hand sanitizer Wednesday.
As of Friday, the company had made 15,000 gallons.
The company received positive feedback on it’s product and has gotten calls from all over the country, marketing director Paige Glazer said.
“This has moved far beyond local,” she said.
Seaside Grown will continue producing hand sanitizer, and is currently offering it to wholesalers and healthcare providers in one, five, and 50 gallon increments.
“We have taken every step of this process to heart,” Seaside Grown founder Ross Taylor said in a news release. “Our family is hard at work growing food for your families on our farm and trying to do our part in aiding in the battle of COVID-19.”
For individuals looking to purchase locally made sanitizer, Bathe in Beaufort is accepting preorders.
Bathe — a shop on Scott Street specializing in handcrafted natural soap and body products — already had plenty of soap in an array of scents long before the coronavirus pandemic.
But it, too, saw a high demand for hand sanitizer.
It began producing it in two scents: its signature scent Beaufort, which is an essential oil blend of lemongrass, eucalyptus, tea tree and lavender, and Germophobe, which is an essential oil blend of frankincense, lavender, geranium, tea tree and lemon.
Preorders can be placed online in four-, 16-, 32- and 64-ounce bottles.
This story was originally published April 4, 2020 at 3:22 PM.
