Regency Design shortlisted in Manufacturing Innovation Awards for ‘Keep it Clean’

Regency Design, the British design and manufacturing specialist, has been shortlisted for the Manufacturing Innovation Award at the Insider Made in the South East Awards thanks to its range of automatic hand sanitiser stands with SteriTouch antimicrobial powder coating.

During the first Covid-19 UK lockdown the team at Regency Design, who are more traditionally found designing and manufacturing high quality, sustainable display products and brand enhancing assets in the vending, café, leisure and retail space, pivoted their focus to hygiene products. The result was a range of floor standing and counter-top automatic hand sanitising dispensing stations.

The range of hand sanitising stations, which use components that are all British made, helped support Regency’s existing customers – and new customers – reopen their doors and safely welcome people back as the UK came out of the lockdown.

The Registered counter lever design is sleek with a small footprint, and every element of the functionality has been designed to avoid cross-contamination. This includes the use of a SteriTouch antimicrobial powder coating, which has a chemical additive to prevent the harvesting and spreading of germs, and sensor technology to dispense 1.5ml of sanitiser per hand detected, which removes the need for people to touch the unit and also reduces cost and wastage. In line with Regency’s strong focus on brand, the units can easily be branded and customised with under-surface mark resistant polycarbonate making them ideal for any type of setting.

As a finalist, Regency is recognised for its product’s standout design and manufacturing, as well as the substantial commercial returns generated.  

Zak Manhire, Chief Commercial Officer at Regency Design, says that the product has strengthened the company’s relationship with its core customers, and also opened up a new customer base: “Hygiene was a new manufacturing area for us which the team enthusiastically took up. We knew we had the expertise to manufacture a premium product that our customers would appreciate, something that would be in-keeping within any location.”

“We had to move quickly to support existing customers who were introducing measures to keep their customers safe post-lockdown” explains Zak. “We secured orders from clients including Costa, Burger King and KFC and over the following weeks and months we received orders for the new product lines from 350 new customers, and have now signed an agreement with PHS Group, a leading hygiene services provider which has the largest distribution network. We are pleased to have put our innovative approach to manufacturing to good use, in support of the UK high street and helping to keep people safe.”

The winner will be announced on 11 March 2021.