Loch Lomond Whiskies donates Shield Guard sanitiser to keep European Tour golf safe

An award-winning Scottish luxury whisky brand, a prestigious golf tour, and a Northamptonshire manufacturer of sanitising products. Ordinarily, these would have little in common, but 2020 has been no ordinary year…

Now Loch Lomond Whiskies has donated more than 1000 litres of Shield Guard hand sanitiser, made with alcohol produced at The Loch Lomond Distillery, to the European Tour UK Swing and this is a story, not just of doing good, but of innovation and agility when faced by an unprecedented challenge.

It all began in February when Loch Lomond Whiskies took a decision to manufacture hand sanitiser to protect their own distillery staff. It soon became apparent that there was a huge need, and the distillery donated 32,000 bottles to nearby organisations for their frontline staff. 

When Nick Winstone, CEO of Towcester-based Healthguard Hygiene Ltd, saw an update from Loch Lomond CEO Colin Matthews on LinkedIn, he contacted their production team with a request to help keep Healthguard’s supply chain going. “We did some due diligence on the enquiries and selected Healthguard Hygiene as the partner we’d most like to work with and support,” explains Tony Brewerton, Operations Director of the Loch Lomond Group.  “A call was set up, a relationship quickly formed and within two weeks the first load of alcohol bound for Healthguard Hygiene was leaving the distillery.”

This alcohol is loaded into 1000 litre containers and trucked to Healthguard Hygiene. There it is used to manufacture the Shield Guard range of sanitisers to the highest ISO9001 standards. In May 2020, Shield Guard products were tested and found to be compliant with EN 1276, 1500 and 14476A:2019, which means that they are effective at killing a range of pathogens. 

With the European Tour beginning again with the newly launched UK Swing and in the wake of lockdowns across many countries, and the need to protect golfers and support staff, the opportunity was obvious. The Loch Lomond Group is donating over 1000 litres of Shield Guard hand sanitiser to the tour. This will help keep the golfers, their caddies and other support staff safe during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Reflects Tony Brewerton: “My hope would be, between the Loch Lomond Group and Healthguard Hygiene, that we would have played a part in keeping front line workers and the public safe when they needed to be kept safe the most and that we continue to do so for years after.  Shield Guard would be seen as the market leader and a brand of safety for everyone.” 

Adds Nick WInstone, “What began as a partnership to meet frontline demand has evolved into a long term business partnership between both groups, for Healthguard Hygiene knowing the providence of our raw material alcohol and ensuring our supply chain is completely UK based.”