US manufacturer switches from toy-making to producing hand sanitizer
Crazy Aaron's founder Aaron Muderick on what his company is doing to boost production of necessary supplies during the coronavirus pandemic.
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A Pennsylvania company has switched its focus from making toys to producing hand sanitizer amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Crazy Aaron’s founder and executive chairman Aaron Muderick told “Fox & Friends First” Wednesday that the hand sanitizer is being handed out to first responders in the Philadelphia area in an effort to keep them safe.
“After we were shut down ... about a week-and-a-half ago we started thinking 'What can we do to contribute? If we can’t produce our signature toy, what can we do?'" Muderick said. "And we realized we have a lot of materials to make hand sanitizer just as part of our normal process."
Norristown-based Crazy Aaron’s teamed up with Five Saints Distilling and the two companies are producing 1,500 gallons of hand sanitizer a day.
“I don’t have anything good to say about coronavirus," Norristown Police Chief Mark Talbot said in a statement. "But I can say that this crisis unexpectedly connected us with the best of Norristown. Five Saints and Crazy Aaron’s are certainly representative of that.”
“We are deeply grateful for their generosity during these difficult times,” he continued.
When asked how the two companies teamed up, Muderick said, “We knew each other from the local business association [and] chamber of commerce and when we realized the one ingredient we need more of was alcohol, we called down the street and guess what they make every single day? Alcohol. So teamwork put us together.”
Muderick also discussed the ingredients that he is using to produce the hand sanitizer.
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“There are different types of alcohol that are approved for use in sanitizer through the FDA, the other ingredients are glycerin, which is sort of a nice hand feel, and hydrogen peroxide, which helps to provide sanitation and then purified water,” he said.
When asked about the response from community members, Muderick said it has been “positive” and “really overwhelming.”
He added that it has been “very touching for him personally" because he is a volunteer firefighter in the community.
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Muderick went on to say that he definitely understands the “trepidation and concern that people have about going into these coronavirus situations without the proper protection.”
“Now I know the Ambulance Corps can sanitize properly, that public utility workers can sanitize, doctor’s offices can see patients and everybody’s level of tension can go down a little bit because we can protect ourselves,” he said.
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