“Now more than ever, [P&G] and our people are stepping up to be a force for good for those who have always been there for us,” Eric Breissinger, President of P&G Canada, tells the press.
“P&G is,” he says, “committed to doing everything possible to ensure the health and safety of all our employees, to continue to serve our consumers with essential products and to take meaningful action to help communities in need and those on the frontlines.”
P&G production facilities in Canada to begin manufacturing face shields and hand sanitizer
The new news in this week’s announcement from P&G Canada is that the company has begun reconfiguring two facilities—in Belleville and Brockville—to manufacture product and supplies that will be used in-house and donated to help fight the Coronavirus outbreak.
The company’s Belleville, Ontario, manufacturing facility will be making non-surgical-grade barrier masks. That site, opened in 1975, was recently expanded to nearly 1m square feet and is where P&G makes its Always branded products.
P&G announced plans to close down its Brockville, Ontario, facility back in 2017. And while the company took time to transfer its production of Tide to Go pens, Swiffer branded products, and Bounce to other company-owned facilities or contract manufacturers, according to employee comments shared with Jennifer Basa of globalnews.ca, the facility was finally set to close this coming June.
In the coming week however, the P&G Brockville site will begin making hand sanitizer for donation (an announcement that comes just days after Health Canada loosened ingredient regulations for sanitizer production).
“Once production is up and running, the Company will be working with local government entities to donate product that it can manufacture beyond its operational needs,” explains the release. “The masks and sanitizer produced will not be available for retail sale.”
P&G Canada donating hygiene care packages and money to address Coronavirus-related need
In Canada, P&G regularly partners with a humanitarian aid and disaster-relief NGO called GlobalMedic. And during the current health and financial crisis, the company has donated some 33,000 hygiene kits to that organization for distribution at food banks and shelters.
“In times of crisis, we are grateful for the support from companies like P&G who enable us to keep helping the most vulnerable in our society,” says Rahul Singh, Executive Director, GlobalMedic, in comments shared in this week’s P&G press release. “We are truly appreciative of P&G’s support over the years and their commitment to give back to Canadians in need.”
Beyond the recent donation of hygiene kits to those in need, P&G Canada has also donated Pampers and Tide products. And the company is now donating personal care products and laundry products to health care workers too.
Several P&G brands have also announced cash donations to organizations including CanadaHelps COVID-19 Healthcare & Hospital Fund, Food Banks Canada, and the United Way COVID-19 Local Love Fund.
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Deanna Utroske is a leading voice in the cosmetics and personal care industry as well as in the indie beauty movement. As Editor of CosmeticsDesign.com, she writes daily news about the business of beauty in the Americas region and regularly produces video interviews with cosmetics, fragrance, personal care, and packaging experts as well as with indie brand founders. Hear Deanna discuss 5 COVID-19 culture shifts set to impact the beauty industry.
