Since February, demand for hygiene products – especially hand sanitizer and surface disinfectant – has been exponentially higher than any time in history. Throughout the pandemic, we have continually evolved our response to direct product to the most needed places. We first adapted our production capacity and distribution to meet increased demand from front line responders in healthcare, grocery, and U.S. military during lockdowns. Shortly after, we further adapted to the staggering demands of the post-lockdown economy that reopened businesses, schools, restaurants, and other institutions.
For the past several months, GOJO prioritized K-12 schools, colleges, and universities as students across the country walk onto campuses and into classrooms.
Additionally, this month we shipped more PURELL® Hand Sanitizer to our retail partners than any time in our history – in sizes ranging from 2 oz., 8 oz., to 1L. While retailers are putting limits on how much any customer can buy, PURELL® products are quickly purchased off shelves.
We also worked with our distributor partners to provide the PURELL® Hand Sanitizer, PURELL® brand HEALTHY SOAP™, and PURELL® Surface Spray to thousands of school districts, colleges, and universities throughout the country, so they reopen with confidence. While supply is still extraordinarily tight, we are doing our best to maximize the number of schools we can help.
We rapidly developed and are launching new solutions for schools. We are providing protocols and training materials to support schools, including when and how to use hand hygiene and surface disinfecting, and where to place wall-mounted dispensers, floor stands, and tabletop bottles – so sanitizing and washing fit into the normal flow of the school day. We are developing additional educational content for teachers to use in classrooms to teach K-12 students good hand hygiene, including how germs spread through commonly touched surfaces. As parents, we want to make sure our children, whether a kindergartener or a college student, are as safe as possible if and when they go back to school.
Nothing is as important to us as ensuring that everywhere from classrooms and restaurants, hospitals and homes have access to safe and effective hand sanitizer. There has been significant media coverage of the FDA’s recent ban on more than 150 hand sanitizer brands for being unsafe or ineffective. In line with our GOJO Purpose of Saving Lives and Making Life Better, we never have felt more responsibility to deliver on this promise than we do today.
Our name, PURELL, says it best – we have the highest standards and use the purest ingredients. We conduct rigorous quality testing on all our raw materials and the finished PURELL® Hand Sanitizer to ensure it meets FDA drug product quality requirements.
Thanks to our team members’ exhaustive and creative efforts, and a massive expansion plan, we are shipping more than a billion uses of hand sanitizer per week in North America alone. It’s going into every market and geography we serve, including healthcare, first responders, schools, restaurants, grocery stores, stores/online retailers, mail and parcel carriers, U.S. military, food processing, convenience stores, restaurants, airports, and more. By this time next year, we will be capable of providing more than a billion uses per day.
Visit our K-12 Well-Being Center and the PURELL® Brand Well-Being Center for resources; more will be added soon.