Vermilion soap business booms

VERMILION — The COVID-19 scare has thrown many businesses into a tailspin, but one local company is experiencing an unexpected boom. Defense Soap just moved its headquarters to Vermilion on Monday, amid an unprecedented buying spree for many of its antifungal soaps and skin products. One in particular, simply called "disinfectant tablets," is in high demand since the the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency issued a list of registered antimicrobial products for use against the novel coronavirus, which causes COVID-19 — including the Defense tablet. The tablets are sold in small containers of 50 or large sizes of 250. Each hypochlorous acid tablet is dropped into a gallon of warm water and when dissolved serves as a disinfect spray that can be used on any surface, with no need to wipe it up again, owner Guy Sako said. The company was started 15 years ago. Sako, a Cleveland police officer at the time, also coached wrestling and was searching for antifungal products for his athletes. It was in Lakewood until this week, when it officially moved into the 12,000-square-foot building on Liberty Avenue on the city's east side. Traffic at the company's website has increased 8,000 percent since March 13, "when everybody started going crazy about this virus," he said. Since the EPA lauded the disinfectant tablet, the company has been forced to limit its sale to one container per customer — while fielding calls from big corporations. "We've had Ford, Coca-Cola, the New York Police Department calling, looking to buy lots of it and I've told them no," he said. "We're trying to spread it out so everybody can get some." Lots of its other products, particularly its hand and face soaps, are flying off the shelves, too. The Vermilion is not a retail location nor does it manufacture the goods, so Sako said the business is dependent on its supply chain. It's made in New England and a new shipment is expected within four weeks. For now, the 11 local employees are searching for bottles for products as other manufacturers also are competing for containers. "We've sold all our summer inventory already, that's why we're replenishing. We're pretty good at forecasting. We knew what we needed for the next six months, but nobody anticipated this," he said. Contact Rini Jeffers at (440) 329-7155 or rinijeffers@gmail.com.