Darryl Segal decided to switch his company over to hand sanitizer production when he was sitting at a traffic light at No. 4 and Blundell roads two months ago, after glancing at the formulation on a bottle he had sitting in his car.
“It’s like a shock came to me, and I realized I can actually make this,” said Segal, who is a pharmacist and president of Richmond-based natural hair and skin care company Herbal Glo.
It’s a product that’s now in high demand, said Segal, with even the Government of Canada wanting to place an order.
Segal said many of his distributers in Asia had asked if he would make hand sanitizer, a product that has been absent from store shelves across the globe due to COVID-19.
For the next three weeks, Segal said he and his chemist worked on developing the product – based on the World Health Organization’s recommended formulation and instructions, which suggests using ethanol with a concentration of 96 per cent or isopropyl alcohol with 99.8 per cent concentration.
“Why reinvent the wheel?” said Segal, adding that he did add moisturizers used in his skin care products, such as Aloe Vera, Vitamin E and Tea Tree Oil and packaged the hand sanitizer in a “more convenient” spray bottle.
Segal said he originally planned to make some bottles to distribute to friends and family, and made just 100 to 200 bottles, but soon retailers he works with began to express interest in the product.
“I attended a trade show in Vancouver (before current provincial health orders regulating group size), and there were literally lineups at our booth,” said Segal. “I have never seen anything like this in the 35 years I have been in business.”
But ramping up production in his small factory to meet demand is a challenge, said Segal, adding the company has ordered more machinery.
His employees, said Segal, are very “devoted” to the work, working overtime to help meet demand.
“They feel it’s worthwhile – we’re helping people, helping lives,” he said. “I have tremendous appreciation for them.”
