A Victorian company has made a timely expansion from bottling juice to hand sanitiser.
The Food Revolution Group (FOD), who acquired The Original Juice Co brand from Golden Circle last year, are diversifying their line into alcohol based hand sanitiser, which is experiencing an unprecedented consumer demand amid global panic over the COVID-19 outbreak.
Managing director John Florey told C&I they made the decision after noticing consistently low stock for the product at retail levels. They will distribute to both the lucrative Chinese market and the Australian market through existing partners, including Careline Australia.
And having spent the last 12 months expanding their business model beyond juice to an umbrella of ‘functional foods and beverages’, including opening a standalone 1260sm clean room facility, in Melbourne, they took the chance to move on the opportunity.
“Some of the equipment needed to do this includes a multi-purpose liquid line. We check supermarket shelves on a weekly basis to keep ourselves abreast of what is happening in-store and quickly noticed the out of stocks in the hand sanitiser section and came to the conclusion that we had the machinery and the capability to produce a relatively easy finished product,” Mr Florey said.
FOD will commence bottling the sanitiser under the Sanicare brand by the end of the month. They have the capacity to produce a variety of bottle sizes, up to 4L.
Functional juice will remain a focus for the company. Other products to be produced at their new facility include Collagen, antioxidant vitamin enriched gels and powders, citrus oil, canola and avocado oils, as well as apple and pear powders.