A DARWEN businessman has secured nationwide deals for his hand sanitising gel business because of the huge demand for the product.

East Lancashire businessman Adam Kilpatrick and his business partner Dean Holmes have created 20 jobs and sold over one million bottles manufactured during the pandemic.

Their company Stay Safe Sanitiser is based in Bolton and supplies the hand gel to the NHS and North West Ambulance Service.

Adam also said the company delivers to nationwide retail stores, care homes, local councils, cash and carry outlets and now pubs, gyms and restaurants across the UK.

Adam said: “It has been absolutely manic here. We have the capacity and the staff to meet the demand so we are coping.”

The hand gel business began when the two men realised that they could use their sophisticated machinery that is used to manufacture vaping products.

Adam added: “Freshmist is our vaping company and was established in 2013.

“We have five stores in Bolton and Preston, so at the beginning on the pandemic we noticed an urgent need for hand sanitiser.

“This led us to re-programming all of our machinery to manufacture 80% alcohol hand sanitiser and the Stay Safe brand was born.”

A study by the World Health Organisation found that all hand sanitizer formulations and dilutions of 40% or more killed the coronavirus and reduced the virus to background levels within 30 seconds.

Stay Safe Sanitiser supplies any size from pocket size bottles all the way up to industrial sanitising solutions.

With the outbreak of the coronavirus, the vape business would have had to shut and staff would have been put on furlough.

Sales director of Stay Safe, Adam added: “We have been lucky to be able to turn the vape business around and make the sanitiser.

“It feels great to know that we are helping others to stay safe during the pandemic.

“Hand sanitiser kills the bacteria and the

For further information visit www.staysafesanitiser.co.uk.