Whitby Gin’s true spirit of giving for the NHS

Whitby Gin is producing an alcohol hand rub – with proceeds from online sales allowing them to provide their product at cost to the NHS Nightingale Hospital in London, which looks after COVID-19 patients, along with local charities.

Luke Pentith, who runs the company with his partner Jessica Slater, told the Whitby Gazette how the lockdown had inspired them to do something different.

“It’s not quite business as usual at the moment,” he said.

“We noticed how many local people were struggling to get hold of alcohol hand rub and realised we could utilise our equipment and spirit to create more to support local needs.”

Luke said when the coronavirus pandemic hit, sales were hit overnight.

He and Jessica knew they had the capability to produce the hand rub but had to wait for the Government to give them the green light – and the uptake has been huge.

“There was a huge demand and people couldn’t get hold of it – it was adding something to the market without trying to take someone else’s sales.

“That’s the way we wanted to do it and to make sure we were genuinely helping people. It’s been crazy how many people have contacted us.”

Whitby Gin – which has just marked its second birthday – has the honour of being able to do its bit for the NHS in these unprecedented times, with bottles being supplied to the temporary Nightingale Hospital in the capital’s Docklands.

Bottles are also being distributed to local care homes, nursing homes, the fire station at Robin Hood’s Bay, GP surgeries and Scarborough Borough Council.

“We’re having to allocate stocks to make sure we can get it to as many people as possible,” said Luke.

Production of the hand rub has come at just the right time for the business. Not only did they spend thousands on materials, containers and labels for the hand rub, they had also just invested in a new still - used to distil their spirits - which is being imported from Germany.

“There’s never a good time for a pandemic,” said Luke, “but with our growth plans, it’s been a bit of a battle to keep cashflow ticking over, although we have had a grant from the University of York.”

Although Whitby Gin has had to cover the costs of buying in the materials for the hand gel product, the aim is to make it affordable - unlike some of the eye-watering price hikes spotted on the internet.

Luke said as the supply of hand gel and hand rub is becoming more scarce, people are selling it at “stupid” rates.

Despite stringent measures introduced by the Government requiring people to distance themselves fromn others, Whitby Gin has been able to carry on okay as two-person business.

“We’re not having to make any contact with other people and we’re lucky we can work that way,” said Luke.

“The fact that we’ve been able to use equipment and materials to help and protect people is quite rewarding at the end of the day.

“For us, that’s been a big positive.”

The hand rub is available to buy on the Whitby Gin website or email [email protected] for larger trade orders.