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A KILKENNY company has reopened its factory where it usually makes sportswear for GAA clubs, to make scrubs and gowns for medical staff.
Castlecomer-based IntoSport raised funding to buy HSE-approved materials to make gowns for staff in hospitals across Ireland.
The family-run business reopened its doors at the end of March and took on another five staff members to meet growing demand for protective equipment for those caring for Covid-19 patients.
The local business has been reacting to demand that has seen scrub sets coming off machines and into hospitals within 45 minutes.
Jonny Dowling, managing director of IntoSport, said that scrubs have been handed over to staff still warm from the iron press.
He said: “We were kind of quiet around mid-March so we were holding on and then maybe one week we were off.
“So we had to decide whether we wanted to stay off or whether we could have a look and see what else we could turn to.
“I suppose we had a chance to see what could be done and we had a factory there that was not going to be used, so we just decided to get a few samples of scrubs from friends of mine who are nurses and doctors.
“We saw that all we needed was good quality garments.”
Dowling has 10 employees, including a graphic designer and sales representatives working from home, with the rest of the team based in the factory.
“We took on another five people just to meet the demand and get up to full speed,” he added.
“Between the gowns and the scrubs, I’d say we have made more than 5,000 pieces.
“They have been going out to hospitals in Monaghan, Kilkenny, Dublin, Cork, the Midlands, Mullingar and Roscommon. Everyone really needs it but we can only do so much.
“As soon as something is packed it’s gone, it’s really in short supply. We are getting inquiries on a daily basis to see if we can make a certain type of garment.
“We’ve had inquiries to see if we can make disposable gowns with hospitals saying they could get us the fabric and asking if we could make it for them. Last night we had 40 or 50 sets coming off machines at 4.30pm and we had it to a hospital at 5.15pm.”
“We were handing them over and they were still warm off the iron.
“Isolation units are the top priority but we are trying to manage who is in more of a need.”
The company is working at full capacity for another few weeks and is prepared to continue working for another eight weeks.
“At the moment it is hard to tell how long we need to continue making them as we are taking it week-on-week. Maybe now with the lifting of restrictions there could be more of a need for it,” Dowling added.
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Brilliant.
That’s what we need to see.
Well done. Great to see companies using their initiative and diversifying their business model.
Brilliant good news story. Well done to all in IntoSport!
This is excellent, Going forward this product should be manufactured and supplied here in own Country our reliance on foreign company’s needed to be deduced.
@conriel: reduced?
@Daniel Kelly: oh oh! Spelling police!
Great, finally a show of sustainability. I only hope this kind of initiative carries on after this period instead of gougers instantly running off to China for a quick buck, there’s always a price to the cost.
I’d love to see them making masks for the general public in county/team colours
@Anne Marie Devlin: company called Boru Sports in Shannon Co. Clare are doing them.
No reason why all such products cannot be made here. Up the Cats.
Fair play to them ! Well done great people.
Good luck to them but could this not have been done 6 weeks ago? O’Neills did it then and it’s apparently been very successful.
@Patrick Agnew: I guess it took them a few weeks to source the raw materials. They would not announce their plan until they were sure they had the right material at their disposal.
@Patrick Agnew: maybe they were waiting on the material to arrive?
@Jim Buckley Barrett: nah
@Patrick Agnew: they have been manufacturing for a number of weeks already.
Cloth or whatever material face masks and gloves might be another one..
Some funky designs, big smiles , anime or county or family crests or whatever.. Online shop maybe, should get IDA funding or backing too.
There will be a demand for these as they will most likely be mandatory on public transport after this and maybe hairdressers and shopping etc., fig a while at least.
Good on them and the best of luck, hopefully they can produce these scrubs after the virus is gone too, possibly combine with hospital logos and export to UK.
@Colm Molloy: manufacturing should be brought back home again exporting everything to be made in China has created the disaster that unfurled when this virus struck.
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