Ineos manufacturing hand sanitiser in bid to combat COVID-19

Ineos has announced it is to open a third factory to manufacture and supply hand sanitiser free of charge to hospitals. The latest facility is to be built in France in just 10 days and will manufacture 1mn bottles of hand sanitiser per month. The company has already started to build other plants in northern Germany and the UK, at Grangemouth.

The hand sanitiser will also be made available to purchase by schools, workplaces, pharmacies and supermarkets.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, founder and Chairman of Ineos, says: ‘It is becoming more and more evident that contact between the hands and the mouth is an important cause of contagion of coronavirus. Ineos is the largest European manufacturer of the basic ingredients of hand sanitiser [isopropyl alcohol and ethanol]. We will build three factories; in the UK, Germany and France in 10 days to produce very large reserves.'

Each of the three facilities will produce 1mn bottles of hand sanitiser per month to resolve the European shortage. The new product will be manufactured according to the specifications of the World Health Organization (WHO) and will be specially designed to kill bacteria and viruses.