FEATURE
Charlene pictured with the Ozo Duo - Air purification system.
BREATH OF FRESH AIR Charlene Turkington, CEO of Ozo Sanitized, is changing how business, educational, healthcare and other settings sanitise now and beyond the pandemic from her new headquarters in Moira. Here she talks to Emma Deighan about clearing the air with NI’s business world.
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former property renovation expert, Charlene Turkington returned to Northern Ireland from West Yorkshire in early 2020 just as COVID-19 would make its mark on how we live, work and play. It was an event that she says “presented an opportunity to look at an alternative business idea” and so, plans that stemmed back to 2017 to move back home full-time, became a reality and the seeds of that new business grew to become Ozo Sanitized. “A chance conversation with our now
Technical Director Andrew Barrington with whom I had collaborated on property previously got me thinking about Ozo Sanitized,” Charlene begins. “Andrew has worked with Ozone (nature’s most powerful sanitiser that has been utilised successfully in healthcare) for several years and together over the course of a few weeks we formed the idea for the business and products we provide today. Subsequent market research over many weeks confirmed our thoughts and the business was born.”
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With its main office based outside Moira, and a second base in Manchester to strengthen its UK-wide reach, there are five people in the team, with plans to add further staff in the second quarter of 2021. The bulk of Ozo’s offering is air and surface sanitisers for use when spaces are unoccupied. This includes Ozo Sanitiser and Ozo Compact, which are classified as Ozone Generators while its Ozo Duo and Ozo Pure products come under the category of Virus Neutralisers. “Our ozone generators are air and surface