Ann: Trading update, page-14

“The plant, which manufactures home and personal care products from top brands such as White King and Country Life, has seen demand triple in just the past week.

“The warehouses are empty at the moment, products are flying straight out the door,” Pental chief executive Charlie McLeish said.

“Of course, we wish this growth was under different circumstances.

But it does make our Shepparton staff feel very proud as they continue to contribute and make a difference.”

While Mr McLeish said the factory was continuing to produce enough raw material,packing companies were struggling to keep up.

“On Friday, we had demand for 12 000 cases but by 8 am we had only 2000 cases on hand as our packing group just couldn't keep up with the bottle demand,” he said.

Demand for bar soaps has also boomed after a widespread shortage in sanitisers.

“We supply bar soaps to three large warehouses per state plus national hotel chains and normally ship one full pallet (of bar soaps) each week — that's 7500 bars — to each warehouse,” Mr McLeish said.

“Now we're shipping six pallets — a jump to 45 000 bars. Thankfully we have the capacity and raw materials to meet that demand.”

Pental is currently developing a new antibacterial hand soap, sold as a single 120 g bar and set to hit shelves in less than a month.

“It's a soap marketed personally for you, unlike shared family hand soaps,” Mr McLeish said.

The company is also developing a one-litre disinfectant and 500 ml spray bottle disinfectant for White King, as well as a 500 ml antibacterial hand wash for Country Life.

Mr McLeish said morale remained high, despite an exploding workload for the factory's 125 staff.

“In my eight years at Pental, it's the highest demand I've ever seen,” he said.

“We've had to make the decision to make our domestic market top priority and put some of our export demands on hold.”

“Pental is sourced 800000 pump component units which will enable the group to have on the market next month new ranges of County Life,White King and Pairs Sanitisers..”

“The Company also has 3 new White King Products ready to hit the shelves.”Each one being of Hospital Grade”.”