Perfume giant LVMH halts production to make coronavirus hand sanitiser

The luxury giant will halt production to start making hand sanitiser. Photo / Getty Images

Luxury design and perfume giant LVMH has announced it will cease production of fragrances and instead begin manufacturing hand sanitisers - to be donated to French health authorities free of charge.

The move by the Parisian group, which owns brands such as Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior, looks to be trying to help the French government combat the spread of Covid-19, reports the Guardian.

The perfume and cosmetics giant has instructed its factories to begin making "substantial" quantities of alcohol hand gel from Monday, French time.

The sanitiser will be delivered to French health authorities at no cost and will be given to hospitals as a priority.

"Through this initiative, LVMH intends to help address the risk of a lack of product in France and enable a greater number of people to continue to take the right action to protect themselves from the spread of the virus," a LVMH release says.

LVMH chief executive Bernard Arnault. Photo / Getty Images

Since the outbreak was first detected in France, supermarket and pharmacy shelves have been completely sold out of hand sanitiser, as well as many other items, according to local reports.

French pharmacies are also excluded from the country-wide lockdown that was implemented by the government on Saturday.

This is not the first big charitable act from LVMH, which is headed by France's richest man, Bernard Arnault. Known for stepping up in a crisis, the company has also pledged $368.8 million (€200m) to the restoration of Notre-Dame cathedral, just hours after fires damaged the Parisian landmark.