Anheuser-Busch to make hand sanitizer to fight coronavirus at its Van Nuys plant

Anheuser-Busch, which has been making beer for 165 years, is now going to produce bottles of hand sanitizer at its Van Nuys and Baldwinsville, N.Y. facilities in addition to suds, in response to shortages spurred by the novel coronavirus pandemic.

As a first step, the brewery will use its mammoth supply and logistics network to produce and distribute bottles of alcohol-based skin-cleaning product to its internal teams, Cesar Vargas, U.S. Chief External Affairs Officer, Anheuser-Busch, said in an emailed statement on Sunday, March 22.

Also, with the help and direction of the American Red Cross, Anheuser-Busch will ship hand sanitizer to the communities where it’s needed most, Vargas wrote.

The CDC recommends the use of alcohol-based sanitizers with greater than 60% ethanol or 70% isopropanol as the preferred form of hand hygiene during the outbreak to prevent spread of the virus.

“To help address COVID-19, Anheuser-Busch is focused on the health and safety of our employees and serving our communities, he said.

“As we have in the past, we are leveraging our capabilities, our relationships and our reach to provide assistance to those in need,” Vargas wrote. “We are in this together and there is more to come.”

The plant moved in 1954 from Pasadena to Van Nuys.

The St. Louis-based company in 2015 invested $20 million to make the facility more water efficient.

It wasn’t always just a beer-production complex. The Van Nuys Budweiser factory was open to the public when it operated Busch Gardens starting in 1966.

The world-famous theme park offered boat rides, bumper cars, a monorail tour through the factory, lagoons, a waterfall, more than 1,000 rare birds and free beer.

The tourist attraction was winnowed down to bird shows in 1977 and finally closed to the public in 1979. August Busch III closed the theme park to make way for an expansion of the plant.

In recent years, the plant has offered some scheduled “pop up” tours, which have swiftly sold out. Recently, the company has made many upgrades to the facility including a patio and tasting room.

from News: Redlands Daily Facts https://ift.tt/2J6YMzV