Local Business and COVID-19
Greenfield Global's Johnstown siteis a trailblazer in fighting pandemic
JOHNSTOWN - Greenfield Global Inc.'s Johnstown facility is joining the fight against COVID-19 with production of hand sanitizer-grade alcohol for cross-country distribution.
"Our Johnstown plant is the first plant in Canada to receive approval from Health Canada to produce Technical Grade alcohol. We believe we have the first such approval in North America," Plant Manager Brendan Bland said today.
The Johnstown site can make up to 710,000 litres of alcohol per day. All 52 employers are involved in helping support the initiative.
"Our focus now is quickly increasing logistical capacity. We are proud of each and every one of our Johnstown employees who continue to work around the clock to meet this essential service," Mr. Bland said.
"As we saw both the looming shortage in Canada, and around the world, our CEO, Howard Field, decided if any company in Canada could prevent a domestic shortage of the critical alcohol that goes into the hand sanitizers used by our brave front line workers fighting against the deadly COVID-19 virus 24-7, we could," he added.
"When the call from Howard went out to mobilize our Johnstown plant to be the new line of defense in this national effort, our local team quickly focused on urgently building out brand new logistics at our plant. We were ready to have tanker trucks of new Technical Grade supply hit the road once Health Canada approval was granted," said Mr. Bland.
The approval from Health Canada is for alcohol made in Johnstown from April 6 to June 30th.
Top feature photo: An aerial view of the Johnstown Greenfield Global site.
Brendan Bland, Johnstown site Plant Manager and Greenfield Global's Director of Operations for Renewable Energy.
"We expect that the surging market conditions will exist throughout the current public health emergency," he said, adding the company anticipates extensions in their approval to meet the domestic demand. The Johnstown plant will ship its product to its existing and new customers.
"Fortunately, Greenfield Global was able to share with Health Canada that the existing alcohol production at our industry-leading Johnstown plant is very close to the pre-existing standards set for alcohol in hand sanitizers," he said of how the plan was put in motion.
"After their thorough review, Health Canada determined that during the public health emergency our new supply of Technical Grade alcohol is safe for use in both healthcare settings and for consumers," he said.
Prior to the emergency, all of Johnstown's production was shipped out by trucks to its customers. To meet the different logistical needs of the unique hand sanitizer supply chain, it needed to quickly create a new specialized loading infrastructure, trucking logistics and upgraded lab testing capabilities in Johnstown. "This was an incredible accomplishment by the Greenfield team in three weeks," he said.
Greenfield Global's Chatham and Tiverton plants continue to run full speed making the alcohol necessary for uses where Technical Grade can not be substituted. The company also recently sought Health Canada approval for Technical Grade alcohol to come from it's plant in Varennes, Québec, thus doubling logistical capacity. Greenfield Global operates 15 locations around the world with state-of-the-art production and packaging facilities. It manufactures and ships more than 1,600 products worldwide.
Greenfield Global's Johnstown site is located at 141 Commerce Drive off County Road 2.
Visit the Johnstown Greenfield Global website.