When illnesses and deaths began mounting from the COVID-19 pan-demic, a number of ink manufacturers began to look at ways they could play a role in helping to combat the illness. Inkjet, Inc., Willis, TX, an industrial printer supplier and industrial ink manufacturer, saw the opportunity to produce hand sanitizers, which are much needed in the community.

The company’s laboratory started producing hand sanitizer at the end of March, following FDA guidelines, and has been supplying hand san-itizers to hospitals and healthcare facilities, police, firefighters and first responders, industrial supply and transportation companies. The company is offering the liquid sanitizer in 8-ounce spray bottles as a case of 6 (limit two); 32-ounce bottles as a case of nine; 1 gallon jugs as a case of four; 5-gallon pails; and 55-gallon drums.

Patricia Quinlan, InkJet, Inc.’s chairwoman and owner, had the idea after reading and seeing that states were starting to shut down non-essential businesses due to the Coronavirus.

“The focus, at first was, how can I keep my business open and my people employed and supporting their families?,” Quinlan said. “That was immediately followed by the fact that we, as a company, use the same chemicals to make ink that are required to make hand sanitizer, especially our food grade inks. We had the space and required FDA and GMP compliance in place, as well as a TTB permit. Then, the big-ger picture of helping other small businesses locally and protecting the supply chain locally was the next thought, followed by protecting the supply chain nationally.”

InkJet, Inc. quickly used its expertise to formulate and produce the hand sanitizers.

“It was a quick ‘pivot’,” Quinlan noted. “Within 72 hours from making and testing the first batch, we were selling it. Our facility has the ca-pacity to produce large quantities of hand sanitizer and we are eager to help during these challenging times. We utilized the same room we use to make food grade ink, adjusted the alcohol and chemicals ac-cording to the FDA regulations and since we already had an e-commerce site, we were able to quickly add it and start selling it.”

While InkJet, Inc. has the materials, a bigger challenge was finding containers for the sanitizers.

“The raw materials have not been an issue, but some of the bottle configurations have been more challenging,” said Quinlan. “We al-ready sell ink in 32 ounce bottles as well as 5 gallon pails and 55 gal-lon drums. However, we had not sourced 8 ounce spray bottles or 1 gallon jugs in the past. There have already been times when we ran out of those, but more keep coming in. The orders just get delayed slightly sometimes.”

Distributing the hand sanitizers is the easy part. Quinlan belongs to Vistage Group, a network group of CEOs. She started with those com-panies, and orders started immediately. She then connected with Crown Paper & Chemical, a local distributor in Conroe, TX, so people would have a local place to walk into and purchase the sanitizers while also helping a local small business. Inkjet, Inc. then added the hand sanitizers to its e-commerce website (https://shop.inkjetinc.com).

“Other than doing some local TV interviews and press, a large num-ber of the orders are referrals by word-of-mouth,” Quinlan added. “The majority of the orders are for businesses that do indeed keep the supply chain moving, like transportation and trucking companies as well as a lot of the front line, essential businesses. Within our first week, we also drove around to the local hospitals, fire stations and police stations and donated hand sanitizer. Now that we are in a good place with production and order fulfillment, we are currently reaching out to our customer base and beyond.

“We, as a company, have a core value that says, ‘Build the Tribe,’ which means that we must support and help one another, and this is a time to extend that out to the community and our country,” Quinlan concluded.