- Up to a million bottles of INEOS' new hand sanitiser have started being delivered to hospitals across France just ten days after the plan was announced.
- The project initiated by Sir Jim Ratcliffe is now being supported by Sir Dave Brailsford and his Tour de France winning cycle team TEAM INEOS.
- Four time Tour de France winner Chris Froome has made a personal appeal for hospitals who need hand sanitiser to contact INEOS
- Deliveries are being made from INEOS’ new hand sanitiser production plant at Etain in Northern France to hospitals in Metz and Southern France.
- INEOS is now producing almost 300 different products that are being used in drugs, testing kits, ventilators and protective clothing in the fight against the Coronavirus and the US Dept of Homeland Security has described many as being “critical to national resilience” from basic sanitation through to the search for a vaccine.
- Sir Jim Ratcliffe, founder and chairman of INEOS, says, “Getting the hand sanitiser into production in just ten days was a huge team effort and Team INEOS, led by Sir Dave Brailsford have made a great contribution alongside the rest of the INEOS family. We knew there was a massive shortage of hand sanitisers across France and that speed was crucial. We believe these INEOS sanitisers will play a key part in the fight against the virus, helping protect front line hospital staff and vulnerable people across the country.”
INEOS, one of the largest manufacturing companies in the world, has today announced that it has started delivering millions of bottles of hand sanitiser each month to hospitals across France.
The project brought together the manufacturing and enterprise of INEOS led by Sir Jim Ratcliffe and the racing team logistics led by Sir Dave Brailsford, the Team Principal of Team INEOS. This major initiative has brought together the very best of all INEOS and its teams in a race against the clock.
INEOS has started production at new plants at Lavéra and Etain in France in under ten days. It has repeated this in Herne Germany and Newton Aycliffe in the UK.
Working closely with hospitals, as of today, INEOS hand sanitisers are being delivered to Metz and Verdun as well as 29 hospitals across Southern France. Wider distribution will follow as both French plants reach full capacity.
INEOS is first focusing on meeting the needs of front line medical and care services before making “pocket bottle” hand sanitisers available for people’s personal use. These will all be produced to World Health Organisation specifications.
Hand to mouth contamination is one of the main ways that the Coronavirus infects people and there is a critical shortage of hand sanitisers across France and Europe.
Sir Dave Brailsford, Team Principal, Team INEOS, says, “Governments have asked industry to help and INEOS was proud to answer the call. Team INEOS is used to moving at speed but ten days from start to finish for four plants already was incredibly tight. We are all in this together and I am grateful to everyone in the entire INEOS family for their hands-on approach to getting the job done.”
Across France it has been widely reported that in many hospitals there is a shortage of medical grade hand sanitiser. In light of this, four-time winner of the Tour de France Chris Froome has made a personal appeal to hospitals who have a shortage of hand sanitiser to contact INEOS directly.
Chris Froome, Rider, Team INEOS, says, "We are all in this together and only by working together will we beat COVID-19. I am proud to be part of the INEOS family and proud that Team INEOS is getting hands on and producing over four million bottles of hand sanitiser every month. Hospitals should contact INEOS for free hand sanitiser to help in their plan to tackle coronavirus and protect front line staff."
All of INEOS nine polymer and chemical divisions are currently supplying products for the medical and pharmaceutical industries and many of them are now being used in the fight for Coronavirus vaccines and treatments.
INEOS produces chemicals that go into antibiotics, paracetamol, anti-inflammatories, anti-virals, aspirin and the reagent chemicals that go into testing kits. We’re producing the plastics going into medical equipment, face masks, ventilators, sterile gloves, eye visors and our acetonitrile is used in essential pharmaceutical analysis in the procedures necessary to find a vaccine. The list goes on and on.
The US Department of Homeland Security has even described INEOS Acetonitrile, IPA and Acetone as “Critical to ensure National Resilience” in their CV-19 response.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, founder and chairman of INEOS adds, “INEOS is a company with enormous resources and manufacturing skills. We are planning to produce a million bottles of hand sanitiser a month from each of our plant in Etain and Lavera in France with the same again at similar facilities in Germany and the UK. If we can find other ways to help in the Coronavirus battle, we remain absolutely committed to playing our part”.
For more information please go to our website: www.ineoshandgel.com
ENDS
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Media Contacts
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Nicolas Bernard (OGC Nice) +33 6 63 54 96 99
Richard Longden (INEOS) richard.longden@ineoscom +41 799 626 123
Chris Hall (Mediazoo): chris.hall@mediazoo.tv @chrishall9011 +44 7739 571634
Mark Killick (Media Zoo) +44 7836 634449
NOTES TO EDITOR
About INEOS
INEOS is one of the world’s largest chemicals companies and the 50th largest business in the world, employing around 22,000 people across 183 sites in 26 countries. It is a privately-owned company with sales in 2018 of $60bn and EBITDA of $7bn. In addition to its growth in petrochemicals, it has acquired oil & gas fields in the UK, Denmark and Norway and is a top 10 company and the biggest private enterprise operating in the North Sea.
INEOS is the leading European producer of the two key raw materials needed for sanitisers – isopropyl alcohol (IPA) and ethanol and has built 3 factories that will produce hand sanitiser with a fourth recently announced. These bottles will be given free to the hospitals then will be made available to the public. These will be produced according to World Health Organisation specifications.
Additional quotes from Sir Dave Brailsford, TEAM INEOS Principal;
"The need for hand sanitiser is so important across all areas of society but in particular for the healthcare workers who are going into the hospitals and working on the frontline, they really do need to be protected themselves and protected against spreading the virus. There is that critical need that we are trying to meet with this particular project."
"The team at INEOS moved incredibly quickly, Sir Jim set them the target of creating, from scratch, a production line in ten days up in the South of France and also in the UK and in Germany. All three teams have achieved that which is quite remarkable really, so the plants are up and running, and the aim is to ramp up that production over the coming days and make sure that gets out to the people that need it the most on the front line."
"Let's face facts, in elite sport, we work in an environment where it is an entertainment business and a lot goes to a few. That's how that ecosystem works and this feels like an opportunity where the few can give back to the lot as it were. On a normal day to day basis it's the sports stars and the professional performers that everyone comes to watch and support. It feels like the tables have changed and the performers are now the health workers, the front line staff and hospital staff are doing such an amazing job - they are the performers, they are the ones that everyone is admiring at the minute, and us as the normal sports industry, we are the fans and supporting and watching them. The tables have changed and we see a greater mobilisation of those who work in sport trying to do everything they can to support the NHS and it is a real privilege. I am really enjoying it, being able to do a little something to support everybody at this time where it is most needed."