Coronavirus: Distillery switches from making gin to hand sanitiser

Hughes Craft Distillery on Moira’s main street also includes a gastropub called The Still House, owned by husband and wife team Barbara and Stuart Hughes. 

As well as their restaurant, they normally produce speciality spirits and facilitate educational tours of the process.

But a new ‘Support Local’ campaign by the News Letter and JPI Media is today highlighting it as our first local business which has gone the extra mile to serve the community and diversify creatively in the current situation.

Initially when coronavirus hit, the business had implemented social isolation among customers.

“But we couldn’t get hand sanitisers so we made up 200 bottles, thinking we will keep a little of this for the next month or so and make it available to our customers,” Barbara said.

They had high-proof spirits and gathered other ingredients and bottles.

“But within an hour of posting our product on Facebook they were all gone and we had a queue of people virtually crying to our staff for more.”

They put an appeal on social media for more bottles and glycerine which were kindly donated by businesses.

“And they allowed us to create another batch of 500 that we gave out free of charge to anyone who could give evidence they worked in healthcare. But again those supplies only lasted a few hours.”

They calculated their price only to cover the costs. A small team of Barbara and Stuart and a few staff hand-filled, capped and labelled the bottles, as they had already sent most of their 45 staff home to care for their families.

“We were doing so many that our hands were sore,” she said.

On Friday the couple went home to look after their own elderly parents.

“But the amount of requests we had from doctors was so high that we went back in on Sunday to gather up the last of what we had for our very last batch.”

They have now depleted their resources, which are increasingly scarce because of high demand.

Barbara is awaiting government guidance on how to apply for the 80% pay guarantee for her “amazing team” that she does not want to lose.

Her company has had no income in March but still has all its overhead bills to pay. Government has said there will be a £25,000 grant but there is no application process yet, she noted.

The News Letter asked permission to draw attention to the gift vouchers scheme on the company website, which Barbara kindly agreed to.

Vouchers for Gastropub dinners, lunches and tours can be purchased at www.stillhousemoira.com/product/gin-school/

Alternatively you can email: [email protected]

• Your local businesses need you. Tell us what you are doing to support your local businesses if they have closed their doors and if you’re a business tell us how we can help you? If you know of a business that is diversifying and adapting to cope and which we could feature, please contact us at [email protected]