A DISTILLERY in Annandale is helping in the battle against coronavirus with a ‘gin-credible’ idea.

Dalton Distillery has halted production of their award winning Oro Gin and switched instead to making hand sanitiser, which is much in demand locally.

The family run business, which was opened in May 2017 by the Clynick family, are doing their part and boss Ray Clynick said: “We had the majority of the ingredients required and all the equipment to put the sanitiser together, most importantly the high strength alcohol and measuring apparatus. With something like this, accuracy is critical.

“We heard from the news that there were shortages and last weekend we looked very carefully at the composition of sanitisers.” He added: “The World Health Organisation had an approved formulation so we went with that and got the production line going as fast as possible.”

They are using their own glass 50 ML miniature bottles and also offering a filling service for anyone with their own bottles. Ray said: “It became clear very quickly that the community was low on the sanitisers, the sheer nationwide requirements were far greater than demand and we realised we could help release pressure on the supply chain and particularly help those in need within our community.”

And now the Dalton firm is contemplating what they will do in the future and considering expanding operations so they do not just produce gin and rum at the distillery. Ray said: “We will go back to our area of production and make our gin and rum. Mind you, we may one day look at creating a hand cream using the essential oils from the botanicals, who knows?

“The community has been remarkable and we want to help however we can. We will keep working around the clock to produce more.”

The distillery has changed its opening hours to 10 am to 6 pm daily and are in discussion with local volunteers to set up a delivery service.