As "wash your hands" became the motto of the nation, hand sanitiser supplies dwindled and businesses were left scrambling for ways to keep themselves and customers safe.
In the business community, this year has been all about adapting to change and that is exactly what several Tauranga businesses did.
EmbroidMe Tauranga director Steve Smith, who specialises in personalised promotional products and uniforms, saw an opportunity to help other businesses out while also ensuring his own remained viable.
EmbroidMe started selling 50ml bottles of hand sanitiser, individually branded with the respective company's logo, for $5 each.
"We sourced a quantity of sanitiser quite a while ago which we were going to make available as promotional giveaways because of all the coronavirus stuff going on.
"We decided to take it a step further and purchased our own supply of bottles, designed and produced labels inhouse and made them available to businesses to purchase to either give away as promotional products or provide to their own staff to keep them safe, particularly the essential services," Smith said.
The idea proved popular as EmbroidMe sold about 2800 bottles of hand sanitisers. Smith said the demand for hand sanitiser during the early stages of lockdown would've allowed him to charge a premium price but he was eager to ensure the much-needed product remained affordable.
"There was a high demand for that type of product but we were also mindful of a lot of people taking advantage of the situation as well. Yes, we could've made a killing but it was providing the thing that was topical, that people needed, but not taking the mickey - and trying to make a buck at the same time."
EmbroidMe Tauranga director Steve Smith has been making personalised hand sanitiser bottles for Tauranga businesses to buy. Photo / George Novak
Smith said it was crucial for businesses to be able to "pivot" during times of uncertainty.
"That's the buzz word at the moment, pivot your business. Ultimately, business in general is about adapting, changing and modifying what you're doing because if you do what you've always done you'll get what you always get."
Another Tauranga company which looked to help plug the gap in the hand sanitiser market was the Mount Brewing Co Brewery who used the equipment they already had on hand to make their own.
Owner Glenn Meikle said his business made about 1000 litres of sanitiser, gave some away and sold it to customers.
"The brewery was an essential service so we were quite lucky, we had a four-man staff but we weren't making a lot of beer so we were able to put our efforts into [hand sanitiser] for a week or so. It was handmade, it wasn't what we'd normally do, and we had labels made.
"Once we got the recipe from the World Health Organisation and tracked the ingredients down it was actually quite easy to make."
James Russell and Niall Harley make hand sanitiser at Mt Brewing Co. Photo / Supplied
Another Tauranga business, SurfaceSafe, specialises in environmentally friendly sanitisers which also clean surfaces. Owner Gregor Cooney said they experienced a boom in popularity when the pandemic hit.
"We were traditionally a business-to-business company but we pivoted our business to sell straight to customers. Demand was crazy, over about six weeks we just couldn't keep up with demand, we couldn't produce enough of it.
"Now, we are quite lucky because we source everything locally so we can turn around orders a lot quicker than some of the larger companies. We saw the prices of raw material sky-rocket, supply chains freeze up, so it had its pains for sure but we're basically back to normal now.
"Some of the international companies are coming back into the market with really low prices which makes it hard to compete. We need to show our strength with supporting local and being a plant-based product," Cooney said.
