Chris Taplin, managing director at Taplin & Mageean.

Facing COVID-19: The distillery that has swapped spirits for sanitiser

A North Yorkshire gin distillery has refocused its business on the production of hand sanitiser in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Taplin & Mageean Spirit Company has switched from creating craft gins to 80 per cent alcohol sanitiser.

As well as producing the sanitiser, the Leyburn-based distillery has pledged to offer it free of charge to local NHS, care workers, and front-line staff in the nearby areas of Wensleydale and Swaledale.

Chris Taplin, managing director at Taplin & Mageean, commented: “As we began to see the effects of the pandemic on front line resources and the impact this was having on the people continuing to work for the benefit of all of us, we were determined to do what we could to help.

“We are still operating day-to-day here, distilleries having been given permission to remain open during the lockdown. As one of the few companies able to remain open at this time it seemed absolutely the right thing to do to ramp up production of the hand sanitiser.

“We sourced the ingredients needed to make the WHO approved recipe for the sanitiser, and went straight into production.”

On the ongoing production of the firm’s signature spirits, Chris added: “We are still producing our award-winning gins or course as well as the sanitiser, so if anyone wants to receive a little bit of the Dales in a bottle, and settle back and have a tipple, we are happy to oblige.”

Our Partners