COVID-19: Kiwi hand sanitiser company aims to open across Europe

While most businesses have wound down their operations due to COVID-19, one Kiwi company has expanded into a very lucrative new market. 

Happy Hands' hand sanitiser was born in a Penrose shed when the crisis hit, and now it's being squeezed all over Britain.

Bathing our hands in sanitiser has become second nature due to the pandemic, but now those harsh chemicals have been given a bit of Kiwi love.

The strawberry-scented gel not only makes for a happy nose, but as the name suggests, it's full of moisturisers like aloe vera to stop skin from drying out, says Michael Mason, who runs the UK arm.

"We didn't want to capitalise with a cheap, fast, basic hand sanitiser."

He says they knew how quickly they needed to work in order to meet the sky-rocketing demand for hand sanitiser.

It took just 10 days to do it with the help of an automated lab near Gatwick.

It's only available online in the UK, but Mason has big plans.

"The next steps will be to get a supermarket in the UK, or a number of supermarkets, and then finally distribute into the EU."

And the pink bottles will soon be joined by a purple one.

"The next one is going to be grape, which we're developing in our research and development centre in Penrose."

A product born in New Zealand, which Mason hopes will quickly spread happiness across Europe.