CooperVision repurposes part of its production to create hand sanitiser
Contact lens manufacturer supports its own requirements and benefits the wider community
FAREHAM, United Kingdom, June 16th 2020—Contact lens manufacturer, CooperVision, has repurposed part of its R&D and production facilities in Hampshire to enable it to produce bottles of hand sanitiser. The move was designed to support its own requirements, but also has benefited the wider community.
CooperVision manufactures and packages a range of brands across its production facilities in Hampshire, including Biofinity® and MyDay® contact lenses. Following UK Government guidance, the company has continued to produce the lenses that many people rely on to see each day. With employee safety the priority, the manufacturing team came up with the idea to produce bottles of hand sanitiser – thereby being self-sufficient and freeing up stocks for use elsewhere.
Following a re-design of a laboratory in order to be able to handle the chemicals involved in the production of hand sanitiser, the project team repurposed machinery and composed new operating procedures. The outcome was that in just three weeks, the company were able to produce bottles of hand sanitiser in limited volume – and do it safely, efficiently and in line with the World Health Organization’s formulation and UK Government regulatory guidelines.
Reducing the need to source much-in-demand product from the marketplace, CooperVision has also been able to provide its hand sanitiser to numerous parts of its local community, including areas of the NHS, schools, community facilities, care homes and charities.
“As a manufacturing organisation with an innovative in-house design team, we were keen to take on this challenge and contribute to supporting not only our own requirements for hand sanitiser, but also see if we could support the community in some way”, said Steve Mathieson, Senior Vice President, European Manufacturing. “Whilst we are unable to supply unlimited volume, we hope that we have been able to release some of the burden on the frontline local organisations who we have been able to support.”
The hand sanitiser project is one of a number of CooperVision initiatives aimed at supporting its local communities. The company has also provided 3,000 face masks to Southampton General Hospital and made a significant contribution to the Hospital’s staff welfare fund.
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About CooperVision
CooperVision, a division of CooperCompanies (NYSE:COO), is one of the world’s leading manufacturers of soft contact lenses. The Company produces a full array of daily disposable, two-week and monthly contact lenses, all featuring advanced materials and optics. CooperVision has a strong heritage of solving the toughest vision challenges such as astigmatism, presbyopia and childhood myopia; and offers the most complete collection of spherical, toric and multifocal products available. Through a combination of innovative products and focused practitioner support, the company brings a refreshing perspective to the marketplace, creating real advantages for customers and wearers. For more information, visit www.coopervision.com.
About CooperCompanies
CooperCompanies ("Cooper") is a global medical device company publicly traded on the NYSE (NYSE:COO). Cooper operates through two business units, CooperVision and CooperSurgical. CooperVision brings a refreshing perspective on vision care with a commitment to developing a wide range of high-quality products for contact lens wearers and providing focused practitioner support. CooperSurgical is committed to advancing the health of women, babies and families with its diversified portfolio of products and services focusing on medical devices and fertility & genomics. Headquartered in San Ramon, Calif., Cooper has a workforce of more than 12,000 with products sold in over 100 countries. For more information, please visit www.coopercos.com.
Media Contact
Heath Clash, Head of Communications – CooperVision EMEA
+44(0) 7825 891287