A small Danish factory supplies the healthcare sector in the whole of Scandinavia with disinfectants. Now the exception is state.
The demand for disinfectants is high photo: Matthias Balk/dpa
STOCKHOLM taz | “27. February I will probably never forget,“ said Bo Eriksen on Friday, a Reporter from the Norwegian broadcasting company NRK. On this day, the first cases of COVID-19 diseases in Denmark, Sweden and Norway have been known to the public. “And since everything exploded. The phones Scandinavia silent,“ said the chief of KiiltoClean. In the 14 years that I work there, he had seen nothing like it. “And I, too, was the case of the swine flu in 2009.” The difference: “Now the demand is greater and also the panic.”
KilltoClean manufactures professional hygiene article, for example, under the trademark Antibac, and is the main supplier of Hand-disinfectants, for the Scandinavian health sector. In a factory in Assens on the Danish island of Fyn 90 employees now produce weekly a quarter of a million liters of Hand disinfectant.
The demand is three to four times as high. But that’s about it. Despite the introduction of night and weekend shifts, the company is at the capacity limit. The night filled the warehouse is empty again, as soon as in the Morning, the trucks, the deliveries have to be picked up.
Prior to the 27. February was the production for a week around 60,000 litres. This also includes private customers belonged to. The past is the past. Now the entire production is sold to hospitals and pharmacies. “We need to say that to all the other requests, no,” said Eriksen. Also if there are hospitals outside of Northern Europe, the want to order. “We see ourselves obliged to use first the Scandinavian countries. All of the exports in other regions had to be stopped,” the company attempts already, “the funds as fairly as possible between the Nordic countries to distribute
This was a conscious decision: Would they have supported the international demand, were the prices significantly increased. “But we think in the long term, and our traditional customers want to be able to see in the eyes, when this is over,” says the KiiltoClean-in-chief. To calculate now, only the more cost, the causing operation of the layer, and the growing cost of supply with raw materials.
This is not Ethanol, the major Problem is the buy now in the whole of Europe together, to be able to the production of the keep. It’s more difficult, packaging, and to get supplies such as bottles, pumps, and shipping boxes: “most of it has been and will be produced in China.” This is not a reason for real concern: “We have a Plan B and a Plan C. But we can’t guarantee anything.”
Nevertheless, the factory in Assens is a General ban on visitors has been imposed to minimize the risk of Infection for the staff as much as possible, but also for safety reasons. The police has strengthened the security of the facility. This was a PET not a request of the company, but a decision of the Danish security police, quoted by NRK Bo Eriksen.
This guess the position of the undisturbed production of the factory in view of the current Situation as the whole of society, so relevant, that you have decided to take this measure.
