The L’Occitane Group has reassigned part of its French facilities to manufacture 70,000 litres of hand sanitiser. These products will be donated to the health authorities and healthcare workers in France.
A part of the group’s facilities in Manosque, in the South of France, that manufacture beauty and well-being products for the L’Occitane en Provence and Melvita brands have been reassigned to the production of verbena-scented hand sanitiser. A first batch of 10,000 bottles of 300 ml hand sanitiser have been shipped on Thursday 24th of March. The company plans to manufacture 50,000 bottles by the end of the week, thus totalizing 15,000 litres of disinfectant. They will be used by healthcare services, firefighters and hospitals, including Assistance Publique - Hôpitaux de Paris (or AP-HP, the Paris university hospital trust). The Group plans to scale up production to some 70,000 litres.
In addition, the Group will distribute 25,000 units of soap and hand cream to staff of AP-HP. This is part of its efforts to support healthcare workers fighting the epidemic across the countries in which it operates.
Since February, the Chinese subsidiary of the L’Occitane Group has been assisting doctors by donating more than 20,000 units of moisturising lotion and shea butter hand cream to hospital workers in Wuhan and Shanghai to help those suffering from skin lesions due to prolonged use of protective clothing. A similar action was echoed in Korea with the donation of 20,000 units of intensive hand balm and shea butter milk soap to the Korean national medical association.
In the United Kingdom, L’Occitane en Provence gave hand care products to those working in the country’s public healthcare system (National Health Service - NHS).
“The L’Occitane Group began responding to the COVID-19 epidemic in February by donating moisturising lotion and hand cream to hospital staff in Wuhan and Shanghai. Now that the crisis is battering Europe, we are extending that support to European healthcare workers, whose work and commitment are admirable. I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to the Group’s staff, who are working hard to produce hand sanitiser for them to use while also maintaining our regular operations. Humankind is undergoing a time filled with challenges. By pooling our efforts with a full measure of humility, we can help it to overcome them,” Reinold Geiger, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the L’Occitane Group.
The L’Occitane Group also thanked its partners who have helped make hand sanitiser production possible, and in particular Distilleries et Domaines de Provence, which provided 16,000 litres of alcohol.
Since the start of the pandemic, the perfume and cosmetics industry has been massively mobilized to produce hand sanitizing solutions and other hygiene products requested by health centres.
