Caen (AFP)

From Caen to Behren-les-Forbach (Moselle), manufacturers of hand sanitizing gel are working hard and hiring temporary workers to meet the explosion in demand for this product without rinsing to avoid the spread of the new coronavirus .

"The standard explodes. This morning we had schools, town halls, Keolis public transport: they all want gel. We are under assault," explains Muriel Jehanne, head of standard for Gilbert laboratories in Hérouville-Saint-Clair in the agglomeration of Caen.

The family business, which mainly serves pharmacies and hospitals, currently produces 80,000 to 100,000 plastic bottles of hydroalcoholic gel per day at three sites in Hérouville, Falaise (Calvados) and Plouedern (Finistère), Dominique Lecomte told AFP. , its deputy director general.

"With the H1N1 episode, we had a considerable increase in production, but what we are experiencing today is beyond measure," added Mr. Lecomte.

Gilbert, who claims to be the number two hydroalcoholic gel sold in pharmacies in France, has just sold 1.7 million in six weeks, compared to 800,000 in the twelve months of 2019.

A rhythm that contrasts with the shortage displayed by many pharmacists. "We haven't had any since Saturday, when we sold about twenty of them during the day," explains one of them, installed some five kilometers from the Gilbert factory.

"With 20,000 pharmacies in France, if we sell ten each a day, we would have to produce 200,000" daily, notes this owner of a small neighborhood pharmacy. As for making the recipe disseminated by the World Health Organization (WHO), "we have no right," he adds.

- Five times more than in 2019 -

To meet demand, Gilbert has increased its workforce by around 30 people, mainly temporary workers, has gone from two-eight to three-eight and plans to produce on Saturday. He thinks he will have produced 4.2 to 4.3 million of these bottles over five months by the end of May, five times more than in the whole of 2019.

"This very significant increase in demand, we have felt it since January in particular on the Asian territory where we have a subsidiary in Hong Kong, then from February in France", explains the deputy DG of the company which employs around 1,000 people, 10% of them abroad.

Hydroalcoholic gels represent so far less than 1% of the turnover of the laboratory, which amounts to 200 million euros annually, its flagship product being physiological saline. The company will however launch on Monday an additional production line of gels in Plouedern, where it already manufactures 65 bottles of hydroalcoholic gel per minute.

Its competitor Juva Santé in Behren-les-Forbach (Moselle) starts a third production line of hydroalcoholic gel on Friday.

This Urgo group company has posted "2.5 million bottles ordered" since the start of the year. "It is ten times more than on the same date last year," said management.

"To be able to increase our capacities, we went from 80 to a hundred collaborators over this period", via temporary workers, we add to the management of Juva Santé, which does not only manufacture hydroalcoholic gel. Juva Santé employs 350 people in France.

The two groups do not express themselves on the profits drawn from these sales. "This is not the product on which we realize the best margins and we have transferred cosmetic productions to less competitive lines to free up production capacity" for hydroalcoholic gels, assures Mr. Lecomte.

"The Covid-19 is not good news for the economy", confined people consuming less, adds Gilbert's deputy CEO.

The two manufacturers also claim not to have increased their prices. The government announced on Wednesday a decree to regulate the prices of these gels made up of alcohol, gelling agent and hydrating assets, after "isolated cases" of "unacceptable prices".

When possible, "washing your hands with soap is just as effective," said Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire.

© 2020 AFP