Wigan manufacturer donates hygiene products for charity's period poverty campaign

Ashton-based Sanpro Ltd provides supermarkets and pharmacies with feminine hygiene products, manufacturing more than 90m products a year.

It is now giving items to charity The Brick for people struggling to access menstrual products, helping to make a difference in the community as well as reducing waste.

Director Derek McDonald said: “We have been operating in the Ashton area for over 40 years at various sites and we have become increasingly aware of the great work that The Brick does to help people in our community who are in poverty.

“We have on average one per cent surplus of product, which until now has gone straight to landfill as the packaging may be slightly damaged, or in a minority of cases, the product isn’t fit for purpose. Unfortunately, our customers will only accept product to sell that is in perfect condition, however, 90 per cent of product sent to landfill is usable, and we wanted to see if there was any way that our surplus product could be used to benefit our community in some way.”

Wendy Doherty, head of fund-raising and partnerships at The Brick, said: “We launched our period poverty campaign before the pandemic, where we supplied schools, colleges, and community groups with an ongoing supply of feminine hygiene products, as we know that the cost to buy these items every month can, for some girls and families, be too much.

“When Derek approached us with this amazing offer to donate the surplus feminine hygiene products to The Brick, we knew that the benefit to girls and women in our community would be a significant one, particularly as more and more people are facing poverty due to the cost-of-living crisis.”

Derek added: “For Sanpro, this partnership with The Brick is helping us to reduce the amount of waste product going to landfill, we are furthering our journey to become a sustainable manufacturing business, and we will be going some way to helping girls and women in our community. We are all looking forward to working with The Brick.”

Any schools, colleges or community groups that could benefit from the period poverty campaign should email Wendy at [email protected] to find out more.

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