How an East Midlands hygiene products firm is helping top European Tour golfers stay safe

An East Midlands hygiene products manufacturer is playing a key role in helping top professional golfers stay safe.

Healthguard Hygiene, based at Towcester, in Northamptonshire, which makes sanitising products, is helping to protect golfers and staff on the European Tour thanks to a partnership with a Scottish whisky distillery.

It started back in February when Loch Lomond Whiskies took the decision to manufacture hand sanitiser to protect their own distillery staff.

When Nick Winstone, chief executive of Healthguard Hygiene, saw an update from Loch Lomond chief executive Colin Matthews on LinkedIn, he contacted their production team with a request to help keep Healthguard’s supply of alcohol going.

Tony Brewerton, operations director of the Loch Lomond Group, said: “We did some due diligence on the enquiries and selected Healthguard Hygiene as the partner we’d most like to work with and support.

Nick Winstone, chief executive of Healthguard Hygiene (Suzanne Howe Communications)

“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.”

The alcohol produced at Loch Lomond Whiskies is loaded into 1,000 litre containers and transported to Healthguard Hygiene, where it is used to manufacture the Shield Guard range of sanitisers.

Now, Loch Lomond Whiskies has donated more than 1,000 litres of Shield Guard hand sanitiser to the European golf tour to help keep the golfers, their caddies and other support staff safe during the Covid-19 pandemic.

The European Tour was suspended on March 8 due to coronavirus. However, last month it restarted with a series of European Tour UK Swing events held at golf courses across England and Wales.

Mr 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.”

Mr Winstone said: “What began as a partnership to meet frontline demand has evolved into a long-term business partnership between both groups.”