Amid COVID-19 Pandemic, VelveTop Begins Selling Disinfectant Sprays The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we all live our day-to-day lives, and has created a newfound emphasis on disinfecting areas that are used by numerous persons. As a result of this, cleaning supplies, disinfectant sprays and more have become essential materials both for the home and places of business. It’s because of this that Long Islandbased VelveTop Products has begun selling disinfectant sprays, distributing machines manufactured by Graco, a Minnesota-based manufacturing firm. “For the last 15 years, we’ve been a distributor of the Graco striping machines, which is one of the things we sell to highway departments,” said Bill Walsh, VelveTop’s Sales Manager. “Towards the end of April, Graco introduced these disinfectant sprayers. Since we sell a lot of their products, they asked us if we wanted to come on board as a distributor. We jumped on the opportunity.” Walsh added, jokingly: “Now we’re so busy, I’m not sure it was a good idea.” In the few months since distribution began, Walsh and VelveTop have seen a high demand for these machines, so much so that there is a backorder on
many of them. They have already sold to tennis clubs in the area, including many country clubs, as the machines provide an efficient way to disinfect a large area. “One of the big clubs I sold to, when they first used it, they had a lot of lounge chairs by their pool area,” Walsh said. “They told me they were able to disinfect 10 chairs in 40 seconds, and two of their guys can disinfect the whole area in less than an hour. They bought two machines and are waiting for more.” The machines are incredibly efficient to use, and come with an array of spray tips to be used on different surfaces or areas. There are small, fine tips if you want to disinfect your office, and large tips that you can use on a large outdoor area. In addition, there are models designed strictly for use in the home “The company has done a great job with this,” said Walsh. “They have created five different models of the machine to address all markets, and they actually came out with one last month that is designed for stadiums. You can spray with eight guns at once, to do something like the National Tennis Center or Citi Field. Every place that needs to re-open needs something like this.” The “new normal” protocols won’t soon
be going away, so it’s imperative that businesses, including tennis facilities, create a safe environment for their customers to come in and out of. Finding the right product to do that can be challenging but a necessary endeavor. “I think there are a lot of people that think this problem is just going to go away. I’m not one of them,” said Walsh. “I wish it would. But I don’t think that’s the reality of the situation. I think for a lot of places, these cleaning protocols are going to be in place for quite awhile. It’s not something we ever thought about doing as a company, but there is certainly a need for it now.”
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