Desert Door Distillery Rolls Out Large Hand Sanitizer Production
Local sotol makers offer the critical commodity free of cost
By Melanie Haupt, 4:30PM, Fri. Mar. 20, 2020
Once men of action, always men of action.
The founders of Desert Door sotol distillery in Dripping Springs have sprung into action in response to the COVID-19 crisis by producing hand sanitizer and making it available to the public free of charge starting next week.
“We’ve been following this very closely for a while,” says co-founder Ryan Campbell, who is fluent in Korean and has been following the coronavirus crisis in the Asian news outlets since late last year. “We were aware of the potential for the virus to get out of hand. I’m a problem solver by nature, we want to be part of the solution, not the problem.”
Once Campbell and his partners started seeing the run on the stores and the subsequent shortages of hand sanitizer, he started researching how to make hand sanitizer and started sourcing all the materials to make it happen.
To date, Desert Door has produced more than 500 gallons of hand sanitizer, with the goal of having 750 gallons completed by Sunday, March 22. Desert Door is actively seeking organizations in need of hand sanitizer and recently received a request from the San Antonio police department, whose 1,600 officers were issued nine-year expired hand sanitizer.
“Our goal is to work to understand how we might help restaurants in town,” says Campbell. “We’re working to find different restaurant partners, to help drive takeout sales.” (For example, buy $40, get a free bottle of Desert Door hand sanitizer.)
Desert Door plans to make 1,000 gallons per week of their hand sanitizer for the foreseeable future, but the expenditure is enormous. “We’ve sunk considerable resources into this already,” Campbell explains. “The next step is to find some partners to help bear the cost. We have no plans in the short term to lay off employees, and we’d love to work with any sort of partner who wants to get involved.” Interested parties should email info@desertdoor.com or call the distillery for more information.
“We’re not accustomed to sitting on the sidelines watching things happen,” says Campbell. “I’m really proud of our team, and I’m really proud of what we’re doing.”
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