Dry sanitiser business ramps up production with £400,000 boost

Wolverhampton-based X-Mist, which has invented a dry sanitation process, is ramping up production to cater for the huge demand created by the COVID-19 pandemic, with a £400,000 cash injection.

X-Mist took David Muirhead, a commercial carpet cleaner by trade, and a Yorkshire-based chemical laboratory two years to develop to address a need by the hospitality industry to shift difficult smells.

When the pandemic struck the product was adapted to fight the virus and it has now emerged as a leading sanitiser in the fight against COVID-19.

X-Mist is contained in an aerosol can which, when activated with a click of a button, disperses a broad spectrum biocide evenly over an area of five metres by five metres.

The droplets disperse easily because they are ionised and therefore repel against each other.

Unlike current sanitisation processes which are wet and consequently can take up to three days to dry out, X-Mist is dry, enabling a vehicle or room to be available for use and occupation just one hour after application.

As well as already being used in schools, care homes, the HQ of a major high street pharmacy and numerous large coach companies, it is now also available from Costco, CEF and Plumbase.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company was producing 10,000 canisters per month for the hotel sector. However, with demand for the product growing rapidly, and interest being shown by the NHS, X-Mist now has scheduled production runs of over 100,000 cans every month.

To meet the production levels, the company chose a leading canning and fulfilment company, which guarantees the product for up to 12 months. However, being a relatively new business, X-Mist was required to make payment on a pro-former basis.

Needing to act quickly, director of X-Mist, Richard Batchelor, approached Reward Finance Group for the working capital injection.

“In order to help with essential sanitising requirements, it was vital for us to fulfil the growing orders rapidly. However, we understood the banks would take weeks to reach a decision, especially in the current economic climate,” he said.

“I was therefore recommended to Reward by my partner Tina Brown, who has been a client of theirs for more than six years, as she said they would be able to turn the deal around in a few days.

“We discussed the proposal with Alan Sanderson of Reward via a video call, and he quickly understood the business and the huge potential for the product. Alan was incredibly helpful in sorting out all the necessary paperwork without making us ‘jump through hoops’ and the funds were provided to us within two weeks, which was a miracle bearing in mind the COVID-19 situation had everyone in lockdown including our solicitors.”

Sanderson said: “The company has created a fantastic product, which will prove invaluable in helping companies combat COVID-19 with minimum disruption. Its effectiveness is proven, having been tested by a leading pharmacy, which placed a large order.

“It was essential we pulled out all the stops to ensure X-Mist could produce the canisters as quickly as possible to help fight this killer virus and save lives.”