From Alak to Rubbing Alcohol: San Miguel, Emperador, Tanduay Switching Gears to Help Fight COVID-19

Expect to see more rubbing alcohol for our medical frontliners soon after the country’s biggest manufacturers of the other kind of alcohol—the drinkable kind—said they are ready to produce the disinfectant to help in the fight against COVID-19. 

San Miguel Corp.’s unit Ginebra San Miguel Inc., Alliance Global Inc.’s Emperador Inc., Asia Brewery Inc. and Tanduay Distillers Inc (both under Lucio Tan’s LT Group), have all pledged to produce rubbing alcohol to help replenish the supply of hospitals and consumers that have all but disappeared in recent weeks.

Bloomberg reports GSI will produce 70-percent ethyl alcohol according to its President Ramon Ang. The company will ferment molasses used at its gin distillery to manufacture the rubbing alcohol that would then be donated to hospitals and brangays in Metro Manila.

Emperador Inc. had earlier announced that it was donating one million liters of 70 percent ethyl alcohol to medical frontliners in urgent need of disinfectants. To do this, AGI will denature 850,000 liters of 96 percent ethyl alcohol, converting it into usable sanitizing and disinfectant alcohol.

The LT Group, meanwhile, has said that it is targeting to produce 190,000 liters of rubbing alcohol that it would donate to the Department of Health, the military, and police.

In addition, listed company D&L Industries Inc. has also committed to boost production of its cleaning products to respond to the increase in the demand for alcohol and disnfectants. D&L Idustries is a holding company with interests in food ingredients; colorants and plastics additives; aerosols; and oleochemicals, resins and powder coatings. Some of its brands include sanitation products used in households and offices like Solbac disinfectant spray, FreshAgain alcohol, and Bactofree.