GREENWOOD, Ind. — So many companies made changes during the pandemic, creating products far outside their normal business, like face shields, masks and hand sanitizer.
But what happens now, as vaccines bring us out of crisis?
At least one local brewer is overstocked and ready to sell.
Brian Nentrup has been working the phones and the floors to clear a Beech Grove warehouse fast.
He's got an inventory problem and he wants to stop renting the warehouse by June 1.
"Yep, we need to be out next week," Nentrup said. "We probably have 2,500 gallons of sanitizer that's ready to go out the door."
That huge stock of hand sanitizer is packed onto pallets, along with about 100,000 cardboard boxes and tens of thousands of empty plastic jugs.
"I guarantee, these are one gallon jugs that there's got to be someone in the greater Indianapolis area that uses these in their operation," Nentrup said. "We'll sell it to them for a very good price, be able to move on."
He wants to move on to his real career, brewing beer and spirits in Greenwood.
Nentrup is the managing partner at Hoosier Brewing Company. Like many brewers, they made a pivot during the pandemic.
Last spring, the brewery had to close its doors, not long after its grand opening.
To keep paying his employees, save the business and help save lives by slowing the spread of COVID-19, they switched to making and selling hand sanitizer.
"And we were able to supply sanitizer for tons of first responders all across the country. We sold all the way to California," Nentrup said. "And at times, if someone couldn't pay, we'd ship it anyway and make it up with local companies buying sanitizer, like Amazon and Lilly. For my employees, they looked at is as a mission, so it was really cool to see everybody come together for a common goal and it worked out."
But now, the demand for sanitizer is down and Nentrup needs to stop paying rent at the warehouse. He has to liquidate his stock by June 1.
"It's ready to go, so if there's a school, a non-profit that needs help, we're willing to jump in and help them as well. If there's a company that wants to help us by buying a pallet of sanitizer, we'll sell it at a good price in bulk," Nentrup said. "All those are on that website to help facilitate and move this operation to the next step and to allow us to get into what we do best, which is producing beer and spirits!"
Hoosier Brewing Company created a special website just for the liquidation sale.
He's now excited to pivot back to the beer business and said it shows we are getting back to normal life.
"It's a good transition and it's a good sign the sanitizer's not needed anymore and our mission is accomplished," Nentrup said.