As part of global efforts to help tackle coronavirus, Unilever’s Leeds factory at UK have, for the first time adapted one of their deodorant manufacturing lines to produce much-needed supplies of hand sanitiser for the NHS.
With collaborative efforts of employees from across Unilever and the rapid response of Unilever’s suppliers with materials, packaging and labels the factory scaled up production of the hand sanitiser from laboratory trials to factory production in just four days. On 2 April, they supplied their first batch of more than 700 litres to St James’s University Hospital, part of the Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust.
Raw materials and packaging were sourced from Unilever facilities elsewhere in the UK and Europe, as well as from third-party suppliers. More than 10,000 bulk containers were shipped to the factory by their suppliers within hours of request.
Unilever’s design agency and label supplier provided the labelling with the necessary regulatory information to ensure compliance and traceability, in just over a day.
“This has been a massive collective effort by teams within our business and our suppliers, while many are remote working,” says Jason Sutcliffe, Unilever’s Beauty & Personal Care Supply Chain Manager who has been leading this initiative. “We have all wanted to get involved so we can do our bit to help those on the frontline. We’re just pleased we’re able to contribute in this way.”
In addition to ramping up the amount of product they’re able to make, Unilever is also exploring how existing packaging formats can be used to make the production and filling process significantly quicker.
Jon Strachan, VP Supply Chain, Unilever UK & Ireland, says: “With hand sanitiser in short supply and much needed to help protect NHS staff in the fight against coronavirus, we’re pleased to have been able to switch over some of our production at our Leeds deodorant factory to make it there.”
Strachan added, “I want to thank our factory team – who pulled out all the stops to get the production up and running – as well as a number of our supply, engineering and logistics partners who have supported us generously and at speed, for making this possible.”
Over the last two months, Unilever scaled up production of hand sanitiser to help communities and individuals stay protected against the virus. Currently more than 30 factories are making this essential product for people all over the world with a lot of this supply is being donated to frontline healthcare facilities.
To meet the demand, production lines, which ordinarily make other beauty and personal care products have been repurposed. In Vietnam, Unilever set up a factory from scratch in just 25 days. In South Africa, where their products were previously imported, they have started producing them locally.