Leyburn distillery ramps up alcohol hand rub production

Taplin & Mageean Spirit Company based in Leyburn, North Yorkshire in normal times focuses its complete attention on the production of award winning ultra-premium craft gins, but in response to the Covid 19 pandemic has switched some of its production capacity to making 80% alcohol hand sanitiser.

Chris Taplin, Managing Director says, “As we began to see the effects of the pandemic on front line resources and the impact this was having on the people continuing to work for the benefit of all of us, we were determined to do what we could to help. We sourced the ingredients needed to make the WHO approved recipe for the sanitiser, and went straight into production. We are providing the alcohol hand rub FREE OF CHARGE to local NHS, care workers, and front-line staff in Wensleydale and Swaledale, and it is also available for a nominal charge to everyone else nationwide.”

Taplin & Mageean is a true product of the Yorkshire Dales, not only based in the heart of Wensleydale, but also using an array of locally sourced ingredients in its various craft gin recipes. The company is proud to exist alongside a number of top-quality artisan brands that reside in the Yorkshire Dales, and feels that at times like this, any initiatives that can support the local community and indeed any UK residents are extremely important.

Chris continues, “We are still operating day-to-day here, distilleries having been given permission to remain open during the lockdown. As one of the few companies able to remain open at this time it seemed absolutely the right thing to do to ramp up production of the hand sanitiser. Working long hours to complete the production and bottling, we were all given a huge boost the other day when we received a personal letter from Rishi Sunak, Chancellor of the Exchequer and MP for Richmond thanking us for our efforts. This letter arrived at just the right time and gave us the morale boost we needed to keep on going. We are also overwhelmed by the messages of thanks and support we are receiving from across the Dales and the UK in general. We really are all in this together, and we are happy to put our shoulder to the wheel and do our bit.”

The hand sanitiser can be ordered on-line or can be picked up from the distillery which is actually on Leyburn train station, Station Yard, Leyburn, DL8 5ET next to the garden centre.

Taplin says, “We are still producing our award-winning gins or course as well as the sanitiser, so if anyone wants to receive a little bit of the Dales in a bottle, and settle back and have a tipple, we are happy to oblige. Like everyone else, we are desperate to see the end of this pandemic, but here to help in the meantime in any way we can.”