STATESVILLE, N.C. — A distillery business in Statesville pivoted to meet consumer needs when a hand sanitizer shortage stressed the community three years ago, but now they're back to making whiskey.

Stores couldn't keep hand sanitizer in stock when the pandemic hit. 

Southern Distilling Company took advantage of the opportunity and began using its alcohol to create hand sanitizer. 

Vienna Barger, co-founder of Southern Distilling Company, thought, "certainly the big hand sanitizer companies can meet this need… and no they couldn’t. There was a shortage of the raw materials they needed… and they couldn’t grow fast enough." 

Venna and Pete Barger stepped in to help, as sanitizers flew off of store shelves.

"Southern Distilling Company was very fortunately able to pivot and change our processes and meet the need," said Pete Barger.

Using containers for whiskey making — they filled it with alcohol and ingredients like hydrogen peroxide and glycerin.

Within weeks, they were distributing to grocery stores, department stores and schools.

"We literally sent cases of hand sanitizer all over the country, to places where people couldn’t get any and really needed to have it,” Pete Barger said. 

While most businesses were struggling to stay afloat, the distillery was making a profit off of an item they never expected to sell to begin with. Interestingly enough, the process wasn’t much different than bottling a bottle of whiskey.

"It had to go through our filler, get a cap screwed on, came down the line, had a label put on," explained Pete Barger.

It's one way the Bargers were able to feed their family without normal operations. However, Pete Barger says there was more to it than just money.

"I feel like we were helping out such a large diverse group of folks, to help people to feel safer and to honest to goodness, get rid of some bad germs,” Pete Barger said. 

Hand sanitizer making was in full swing but distillery tours stopped during this time. While it kept people out the building, the Bargers say it paved the way for new opportunities.

“While everyone was working from home, we were here at the distillery expanding,” Pete Barger said. 

The couple installed six more fermentation tank, which meant more whiskey making. And as the demand for sanitizers slowed and the pandemic was more manageable, Pete Barger says, there wasn't really a need for continuing with the sanitizers.

“The business case was no longer really there for distilleries to continue operating that,” Pete Barger said. 

It meant they were back to doing what they love most.

“Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, whiskey making here at Southern Distilling,” Pete Barger said.

The distillery is now open full time, with tours available.

In the summer, they’re opening up another facility  that came to life during the pandemic shutdown.