Coronavirus Crisis: Vaughan restaurant now making hand-sanitizer, keeps staff employed

#financialwellbeing: Perla Oyster Bar & Grill converted its restaurant floor to hand-sanitizer assembly line

Yorkregion.com
April 6, 2020
Dina Al-Shibeeb

Perla Soaps and Detergents, which also owns Perla Oyster Bar & Grill in Vaughan, has transformed their restaurant dining room and bar area to a hand sanitizer production line in a short period of time to fill the market's demand. The restaurant's owner and president Mark Frisoli holds four-litre jugs alongside 70 ml containers. He is heeding the provincial government's call to ramp up production of much-needed products.

Perla Oyster Bar & Grille in Vaughan transformed their restaurant dining room and bar area into a hand sanitizer production line. Staffers Alex Martire and Nicole Pagliuso label filled 70 ml containers. The hand sanitizers are mainly going to essential services and are free for people who are 65 and older. - Steve Somerville/Torstar

Domenic Loduca, the head chef at Perla Oyster Bar & Grill in Vaughan, never thought in his life he would be packaging hand sanitizers. After all, the veteran cook has applied his culinary skills for more than two decades to produce scrumptious food.

To keep the 10-member staff under the payroll, Perla Oyster Bar & Grill, which opened in recent months, saw its restaurant floor converting to a hand-sanitizer assembly line.

“I am helping myself and the community at the same time,” said Loduca, who is engrossed with tasks such as bottling, labelling, packaging and shipping of the much-needed hand sanitizers.

After the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as a global pandemic, consumers hoarded some products and emptied shelves for hand sanitizers, leaving front-line workers scrambling for protection.

Luckily, the hand sanitizer business isn’t foreign terrain to the owner of the restaurant, Mark Frisoli, who succeeded in releasing his Perla Soaps and Detergents, named after the eatery in a short period of time.

Years ago, Frisoli left his detergent business to make money from other sources, including properties at Wasaga Beach and an optical clinic in Vaughan. However, despite the backing of the other businesses, Frisoli said his family-run business wouldn't be able to keep his restaurant staff if he doesn’t adapt to the new situation after Ontario ordered the shutting down of all restaurants and bars not providing takeouts on March 17.

“We just opened (the restaurant) a couple months ago, so you can imagine we're getting hammered pretty hard,” Frisoli said.

Given Frisoli and his family’s background in the detergent business, he and his staff concluded the shipment of up to 100,000 units of hand sanitizer supplied in both big and small jugs on March 27, catering mainly for front-line workers but still giving product away for free to people who are 65 and older.

“I wish I could do more, but at least we can do a free bottle of hand sanitizer to anyone over 65,” he added. However, regular consumers can still go directly to the restaurant and buy their hand sanitizers.

So far, Frisoli is eying 100,000 units at max capacity, including at least 20,000 of the small bottles on a weekly basis.

“We were fortunate because we have connections and a lot of people are trying to make hand sanitizers. We were in the business for years and years before. So, again, luckily, we already had those connections and we're resourceful,” Frisoli said, citing how getting the 70 ML bottles were an issue.

To skirt this issue, “We manufacture our own,” he said.

“We found a company in Scarborough and the (supplier) actually shifted production for this because he knew it was being used for hand sanitizers,” Frisoli added, describing the camaraderie emanating between manufacturers and suppliers to help.

“And the (Scarborough supplier) didn't even gouge the prices, and charged basically market rates.”

Frisoli said once this “crisis is going to be over in a few months,” those who gouged prices will not "look well on them.”

While Frisoli doesn’t want to mention the price he is selling to distributors, he said he goes to stores to ensure they aren’t gouging prices.

Also, given the prices of alcohol and raw material -- which are now in high-demand -- are a “moving target,” Frisoli said the small hand sanitizers so far are sold -- at stores -- from $4 to $5 a piece, and the jugs range from $37 to $45 as of March 31. He said they could change depending on supplies and trade.

“We're pulling from as many sources as we can, even from the States. Thank God they didn't stop the trucks from the States, otherwise, that would be a severe problem. So luckily, you know, imports of commerce, you know, that's still coming from the states, which we need.”

Even with wages, it’s a challenge to keep it at the same as before.

“We're trying to keep wages as high as we can without ourselves going under,” Frisoli said, whose father, two brothers and fiancé are also giving support to the business.

“We can't keep as many people on payroll at the same rate, at least right now temporarily, but trying to keep as many people as we can on the payroll,” he lamented.