A Warwickshire businessman has branched out with a new venture after his aviation valeting business was left grounded by the pandemic.
Carl Barlow hopes his new sanitisation company, Fog, will help fuel local efforts to re-emerge from the challenges of lockdown.
Based in Cubbington, Fog was set up to cater for rising demand for surface sanitisation and surface protection.
The company is being headed-up by former RAF engineer Barry Sant, a childhood friend of Mr Barlow.
Mr Barlow, who launched Rise&Shine for the aviation sector 20 years ago, said: “Due to the virus, aviation has been very badly hit so my business needed to look to other fields to generate more income.
“As we were already providing a fogging sanitisation service to aircraft – and as we were starting to receive requests to fog jet centres and non-aviation vehicles, we realised there is a need for this outside the aviation industry as well.”
He added: “We are truly focused on employing within the local area, to people who lost their jobs due to the virus.
“And everything from vehicle graphics to clothing merchandise to print has been locally sourced to assist as many businesses as possible.”
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The fogging machines used are designed to thoroughly sanitise all surfaces in any space, by dispensing non-toxic and eco-friendly disinfectant in a super fine mist of protective particles.
And customers are warned not to be alarmed by the appearance of Fog’s ‘foggers’.
Looking like Ghostbusters
“We turn up looking like Ghostbusters! We only wear the full personal protective equipment because we’re working with it all the time and are following the product manufacturers’ recommendations. The product is completely safe due its non-toxic and eco-friendly properties,” said Mr Sant, who was recently reunited with his childhood friend after seeing an appeal on social media.”
The ex-RAF and civil aviation engineer is able to call upon his 24 years working in aircraft maintenance when heading up the new operation.
Depending on which cleaning agent is used, it can provide protection against pathogens and viruses for up to eight, 10 or 30 days after each procedure.
Mr Sant said: “A motor creates a high pressure air output to produce a very fine fog to enable the efficient application of various disinfectant solutions to a variety of hard and soft surfaces that are active within five minutes.
“It can be used anywhere that you have customers, staff or the general public – pubs, clubs, bars, restaurants, public transport, vehicles, gyms, shops etc and is already used in hospitals and other healthcare settings as one of the products is certified as a class 2A medical device. “All products are food safe and one is even Halal certified, in accordance with Islamic law.”
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He added: “People have their own care and maintenance and cleaning regimes to complement the initial disinfection, such as further sanitisation of the common touch points like door handles and light switches.
“There’s no reason why people can’t do the fogging themselves, with the correct equipment and PPE and disinfectant, but most people want to leave it to someone who has got knowledge and experience in carrying out the procedure and not have to worry about the initial outlay of buying all the expensive equipment.
“Also, every time there’s a procedure carried out they receive the official certification which many businesses need to produce.”