The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

Bahamian hand sanitiser manufacturers yesterday said sales have levelled off and are now "stable month-to-month" following the initial surge during COVID-19's early stages.

Pepin Argamasilla, the John Watling's Distillery's general manager, told Tribune Business “things have slowed down obviously after the initial fill-in of the pipeline and once the pandemic hit, but they are there. They are stable month to month".

"At the beginning there was the initial push, which was to fill the pipeline because there wasn’t any hand sanitiser on the island. So obviously sales have dropped since then because there is plenty of sanitiser on the market."

John Watling's had 4,000 hand sanitiser bottles in stock at the beginning of May, but Mr Argamasilla declined to provide current numbers. He added: "Remember how we were launching the 8 ounce bottles. We have come out with a 16 ounce bottle and a one-gallon refill, because it really doesn’t make sense for people to keep buying small bottles.

"Just use the gallon refill and fill the other container that you have. We also have spray tops, and what we did was we branded the sanitiser under the Buena Vista estate name, so it is now named Buena Vista’s day hand sanitiser.”

Mr Argamasilla continued: “There are a lot of hand sanitisers on the island, though, and a lot of hand sanitisers that aren’t really made according to CDC (Centres for Disease Control and Prevention) requirements. That’s a little bit concerning based on the fact that, while hand sanitising kills bacteria and germs, it may not necessarily go against the virus.

"Basically the CDC said that you have to make it [hand sanitiser] with hydrogen peroxide, glycerine and above 70 percent alcohol, but I have been seeing some hand sanitisers that aren’t made with alcohol, and made with other natural stuff that doesn’t really work.”

Roman Knowles, Blanco Bleach's sales manager, said: “We were out of stock for a little while because we didn’t have any sprayers, so we just got some in and we did a full load and they are going well. We didn’t have stock for about two or three weeks; we were waiting on the spray cap and obviously those are worldwide shortages right now.

"We made 900 cases of the lemon and 900 cases of the lavender, this is the 32 ounce bottle. They are in stores and they are everywhere now, so anybody who makes an order now will pretty much get them in the next delivery, which is usually that same day or the day afterwards.”