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An Unrelenting Commitment to Fighting Infection

30 October 2020
Our Operations Director, Chris Evans, recently gave an interview to Inside Industry, discussing the challenges the company has faced during the pandemic, in helping to keep the nation clean and safe.
 
Preston based disinfectant, liquid soap, cleaning and hygiene product developer and manufacturer Evans Vanodine International has been at the forefront of the global fight against the Covid-19 pandemic. The monumental task of keeping us hygienically clean and sterile throughout the crisis has not come without unique challenges, explains Operations Director Chris Evans. Paul Knight reports.

Unlike many manufacturers in the UK, Preston based Evans Vanodine International stayed operational throughout the country’s 3-month lockdown period, with only its canteen staff placed on the government’s furlough scheme.

“Our staff have really risen to the occasion and worked around the clock. We are really very proud of everything they have achieved,” praised Operations Director Chris Evans. 

To give some idea of the numbers involved, Evans Vanodine produced 80,000 litres of Handsan, its alcohol-based hand sanitiser, in the first seven months of 2019. The same period this year saw a staggering 740,000 litres produced.

“There has been tremendous pressure on Handsan and our range of virucidal disinfectants, which are proven to kill viruses such as Covid-19,” Mr Evans said. “As you can imagine, such an increase in demand has brought challenges along with it – particularly in terms of raw materials and packaging as demand increased and availability decreased.”

At the height of the pandemic, Mr Evans said human care hygiene chemicals saw a huge increase in consumption to the point where the company’s raw material and packaging supply limited its ability to manufacture.

“There have also been a rash of less reputable ‘pop-up’ companies making sanitiser which is not fit for purpose,” he added. “This causes all kinds of problems – not least that they buy up raw materials causing greater scarcity, but also representing a huge public health and safety risk, if people use these products in good faith, and become ill as a result.” 

Adapting and overcoming challenges 

As a result of such challenges, Evans Vanodine adapted by producing Handsan in five litre units and limited its product range. 

“The price of our chemicals and raw materials have been changing almost daily, as has the availability of these materials from our usual suppliers,” he continued. “The impacts of this on the business have been huge, as we have had to identify and rapidly qualify alternative suppliers or reformulate existing products.”

He added: “The need to split teams, the demands of home working and significant changes in working practices to keep all our employees safe certainly hasn’t made the challenges any easier to mitigate.”

Despite these circumstances, Evans Vanodine has not only been able to maintain supply, but has established new customers – including P&O Ferries.

“Keeping a full workforce meant that we could operate to full capacity whilst maintaining social distancing measures,” Mr Evans outlined.  

“Evans is renowned for sharing our expertise,” he emphasised, “we want to use our knowledge to help, therefore we also created multiple support materials for businesses when they were looking to reopen, with direction on how they could do so effectively in terms of infection prevention, cleaning and disinfection.”

A close-knit family business

Evans Vanodine has been able to respond quickly and effectively to the daily challenges 2020 has brought due to a “leaner management structure than most,” Mr Evans explained.

“Decisions are made by the family, not external inputs,” he continued. “We can be more flexible and more agile to meet the needs of the rapidly changing climate presented by Covid-19. As a family business, we take things personally, as the decisions are made directly by us. The workforce has been very cooperative throughout the pandemic and flexible to the needs of the business. Many have said they have seen what we as a family business do for them and they wanted to reciprocate and help the business through a time which remains volatile for many businesses.”

However, Covid-19 is not the only hygiene emergency to which the company has been responding to in 2020. He added: “It’s certainly true that our capabilities have been tested and pushed in the past year with both Covid-19 and African Swine Flu, which saw a major increase in demand in our Asian markets for animal health disinfectant.”

In terms of an R&D response to Covid-19, the company has researched, developed and introduced new product formulations effective against coronavirus including EC4 and EC9. 

“The company has also increased Masomint within our Livestock Protection business – a new, ready to use disinfectant with peppermint oil which helps soothe and calm the skin,” revealed Mr Evans. “We have also relaunched some of our other agricultural products, specifically our Supa-Max and Lact-8 teat disinfectants with enhanced biocidal efficacy.”

The ‘can-do’ attitude and expertise of the company has been recognised in recent years by a number of awards and accreditations. 

“We were very proud to receive our second Queen’s Award for International Trade and the BIBA Award for International Trade,” Mr Evans said, “and our lab has received UKAS accreditation for the 28th year.”

As of 2020, Evans Vanodine represents a unique presence in the sector, in that the company is “now the last independent manufacturer of our size in our industry,” outlined Mr Evans. “Competitors have now been acquired by bigger companies which has changed our competitive landscape.”

Despite the increase in competition this circumstance represents, Evans Vanodine continues its upward trajectory, manufacturing more than 150 product lines and exporting to 86 countries.

“Production capacity currently stands at 31 million litres per year,” stated Mr Evans. “Export now makes up 41% of overall business out of Preston; 55% if our four overseas manufacturers are taken into consideration.”

21st century solutions

A multi-million-pound extension of the company’s offices and labs was recently completed, and according to Mr Evans, ongoing investments in the company’s facilities will continue in earnest. 

The company has recently taken delivery of a new one litre rotary filler, and a new 25 litre filling line is in the process of being finalised.

“The upgrade has brought us further into the 21st century,” he explained. “We have an extensive program of lab expansions across microbiology, R&D and quality. This, alongside our investment in manufacturing with new filling lines, automation and enhanced safety measures forms part of a long-term strategic investment.” 

Such financial outlays will ensure Evans Vanodine remains at the forefront of cleaning and disinfecting technology well into the future.

“We have reorganised and expanded our technical department and have introduced a new position, Company Technical Manager, within the leadership team,” Mr Evans said.  “The role brings together all technical groups within the business including R&D, quality, microbiology and regulatory, with responsibility for maximising efficiencies, driving innovation and maximising customer support.”

A sustainable future

Evans Vanodine’s environmental management system is constantly evolving, noted Mr Evans.  

“We use our own developed unique WEIR rating system, to measure the environmental impact of our products. We find the WEIR system to be a great comparison tool as it considers seven different factors which no other system does. We consider the whole process, including the energy to process, packaging and usage rates of the products, which many other systems do not. WEIR is a great comparison tool for us and is now something we are looking to extend into our livestock protection ranges."

“On the environmental front,” he continued, “we are reducing the amount of waste produced from our site. Projects in recent years have seen us reduce our effluent to drain by almost four million litres.”

This year the company gained accreditation to The Planet Mark – a certification that is maintained by reducing the carbon footprint of the business. 

“We have ports for charging electric and electric hybrid cars available on site and are gradually switching our company car fleet over to these types of vehicles,” Mr Evans laid out.  “Here at Evans, by joining up with The Planet Mark we are looking to push this through our business and hopefully help to achieve the target."

“We hope to be able to do all this while increasing our turnover to £50 million,” the Operations Director said. “One of our priorities moving forward will be to grow and invest in our livestock protection products, continue to research new products and to grow our exports.It is imperative to us that Evans Vanodine continues at the forefront of knowledge, information and sharing our expertise within the industry.”

The future of the business, believes Mr Evans, is in good hands. 

“Members of the fifth generation have recently entered the business,” he revealed. “In the past year Antonia and Camilla Evans, Anthony’s daughters, have joined the business; both have studied business at university and worked for other companies, gaining expertise to transfer into the family business. They will be a great asset to our team.” 



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