Coronavirus: Maison Berger makes hand sanitiser solutions

In Normandy, the company Maison Berger, which specialises in fragrances, has started making hand sanitiser solutions to meet the country’s needs. Several thousand litres will be given to the Rouen university hospital.

A company with an international reputation

Maison Berger means prestigious lamps and fragrance diffusers, made in France for generations. Originally, these products were offered to hospitals as a way of purifying the ambient air in health facilities, using a highly refined catalysis technique based on isopropyl alcohol.

More than 120 years after the first lamp put on the market by Maurice Berger, the company has not aged and has even made its place in the world of French luxury craftsmanship. Maison Berger exports worldwide and serves a very high-end clientele.

From fragrance diffusers to hand sanitiser gels

In the Eure, a Maison Berger production site makes both the fragrance and the famous lamps. Since the coronavirus pandemic reached the world and France in particular, a shortage of hand sanitiser gel has been felt. Maison Berger, already used to alcohol-based mixtures, offered to make the much-needed sanitiser solutions used for washing hands and limiting the spread of the virus.

And so, although it is not its usual business, Maison Berger has adapted its organisation to take part in the collective effort. After two weeks of work for its research and development teams, Maison Berger aims to make close to a million bottles of hand sanitiser gel for France, intended for university hospitals.

Thanks to this unexpected production, the company can also carry on working almost normally in this time of health and economic crisis. Employees can come to work while observing the protective measures, keeping the Normandy site in operation.

4,000 litres of hand sanitiser solution made by the company will be distributed free of charge to the Rouen university hospital, to cover the needs of the care staff working on the front line against the epidemic.