Big Machine Answers Need, Helps Public during Pandemic with New Hand Sanitizer Product
June 24, 2020 | By Zach Horrall, Indianapolis Motor Speedway
What initially started as a product to help those in need during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic has become a nationwide product that will continue to keep people safe and healthy now and in the years to come: Big Machine Hand Sanitizer.
Big Machine Hand Sanitizer is an 80-percent alcohol antiseptic topical solution, as recommended by the World Health Organization, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration to provide a high level of sanitization and decontamination.
The liquid hand sanitizer comes from the Big Machine Distillery which is based in Nashville and Lynnville, Tennessee, and is the same distillery that produces Big Machine Platinum Filtered Premium Vodka.
The inspiration for Scott Borchetta, president and CEO of Big Machine Label Group, and his brother, Mark, executive vice president of Big Machine Distillery, to make hand sanitizer began in March when COVID-19 started to become more prevalent in the United States. As the need for personal protective equipment, including hand sanitizer, was growing, the two decided that catering their product to the needs of others and pivoting production of their vodka production to hand sanitizer was a necessary move to help support their local Nashville community.
Because hand sanitizer can be made from an ethanol base, which also serves as the base for Big Machine Vodka, the first batch of hand sanitizer was produced in-house, and it was being distributed to local first responders within 10 days of the brothers’ first discussion.
“We wanted, first off, to help everybody and to make sure that first responders in our immediate area had product,” Scott Borchetta said. “That’s how it started. It was, ‘OK, we can do this, and let’s see how we can help our local community.’”
Immediately after the hand sanitizer was produced, Nashville-area first responders and hospital workers received free hand sanitizer from a socially distanced drive-thru at the Big Machine Tavern and Distillery located in the Berry Hill neighborhood of Nashville. After more hand sanitizer was produced, customers who placed curbside or takeout deliveries at the Tavern received a complimentary bottle of Big Machine Hand Sanitizer with their orders.
“We wanted to get it out to everybody with no barrier to entry,” Borchetta said. “There is a great need, and I think we’re going to have hand sanitizer as a daily part of the rest of our lives, so I think as everyone has a heightened awareness of making sure that we’re being safe and that we’re properly washing and sanitizing, I think this is going to be a big part of our business for the distillery.”
As the product has grown in popularity and the company started taking orders from all across the United States, Big Machine Distillery has provided the Nashville area with more jobs as it hired more people to produce enough hand sanitizer to fulfill orders.
The product’s growth in popularity will be on display Fourth of July weekend at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as the name of the NASCAR Cup Series race has changed to the Big Machine Hand Sanitizer 400 Powered by Big Machine Records (live on NBC). The new name recognizes the company’s efforts to assist first responders and the goal to provide people with a trusted product that will keep them safe and healthy.
For Borchetta, who has long been associated with the NASCAR weekend at Indianapolis and is an avid and successful racer, the race name is symbolic of the importance of the Racing Capital of the World to the Big Machine brand.
“A lot of the things that I’ve done around racing, I do because I love it and want to support it, and the whole idea for us to have a vodka and whiskey was born at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway,” Borchetta said. “With the hand sanitizer, we literally have a product you can order from anywhere, and we can get it to you. So for us to be able to say, ‘Hey, we’re here, we have this and we can get it to you right away’ is very powerful, and it made a lot of sense for us to pivot this.”
Borchetta will take his love for racing to the next step that weekend as Big Machine Hand Sanitizer will sponsor Jade Buford and SS Green Light Racing in Buford’s first-career NASCAR Xfinity Series start in the Pennzoil 150 at the Brickyard on Saturday, July 4 (live on NBC) on the IMS road course. Buford is an experienced road course racer, having competed in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge and winning at Sebring International Raceway in 2017.
“When I got to tell him I was going to put him in an Xfinity car, he lost his mind,” Borchetta said. “It was so much fun to be able to tell somebody who’s just really a great guy and who has become a great friend that we’re going to give him an opportunity that he might not have ever gotten. Whether it’s an artist or a race driver, I always love to help great talent. Jade is coming to race. He’s a true racer.”
The growing popularity of Big Machine Hand Sanitizer already has led to discussions of the product being readily available in retail stores across the United States soon. Until then, race fans can purchase Big Machine Hand Sanitizer online now.