Sustainable and Committed to Community

2020/08/10

NCP seized the opportunity when KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) businesses decided to band together in the fight against Covid-19 by donating 250 000 litres of hand sanitiser base mix to all provincial hospitals and clinics throughout KZN.

The business partnership, known as “Committed to Community: Health Partners during COVID-19” is a functional project that will assist those most vulnerable and at the forefront of the fight against the pandemic. Committed to Community partners also include Tongaat Hulett, Spring Lights Gas (SLG), Nampak Rigid Plastics, Southern Lodestar Foundation, and the Department of Health.

According to Managing Director, Peter Starling, “it was an easy decision to convert the plant from supplying fermented alcohol to hand sanitiser base mix. As a committed South African business with strong local ties we felt we should contribute by helping to alleviate the desperate shortage of hand sanitiser. There was also a simultaneous decrease in demand for our potable product, so the timing was fortuitous. The innovation demonstrated to achieve this transformation is testimony to the creativity and perseverance of our people. Such strengths are what has sustained the business in its 150-year history.

“This has been a commendable team effort,” says Gary Bregovits, Operations Executive. “We have made full use of our human capital and resources to produce our first batch of hand sanitiser base mix shortly after the challenge was laid down by our MD, Peter Starling “. Initially around 40 kls per day were drummed but this has since been increased to 75 kls per day after further improvements were instituted.

Capacity has steadily increased requiring the conversion of an additional blending facility, with drumming being ramped up by tapping into an existing product line. The increased drumming capacity has also had the positive result in employing four additional temporary staff.

Currently the company is almost exclusively manufacturing hand sanitizer and denatured ethanol for the sanitizer market, thus helping meet a crucial need in our country. This is viewed as a potential opportunity and may very well form part of our future portfolio of products.”