Delaware business: Sanosil announces New Castle expansion

Aided by state loan, growing company hopes to add 50 jobs

By Andrew Eder
The News Journal

A fledgling maker of environmentally friendly disinfectants is expanding its footprint in Delaware, aided by a loan from the state.

Sanosil International hopes to add 50 jobs in the next three years in the areas of manufacturing, sales and research and development. The company, which recently received a $750,000 loan from the Delaware Strategic Fund, has moved from Newark to a 5,000-square-foot facility in New Castle.

On Tuesday, Gov. Jack Markell and New Castle County Executive Chris Coons joined company executives at the new headquarters to announce the expansion. Sanosil, founded in 2008, markets an anti-microbial technology originally developed in Switzerland. The Delaware company bought the rights to manufacture and market the product outside of Europe.

The company focuses on water treatment solutions for industrial cooling towers and infectious disease control in hospitals, schools and gyms. Sanosil, which currently has seven employees, outsources its manufacturing but eventually plans to make its own products, said Meghan Harrison, Sanosil's vice president of marketing. The company says its products have no harmful effects on the environment.

Sanosil's current sales are mostly in Mexico for water treatments at nuclear power plant cooling towers, Harrison said. She said the company also has some sales in South America and New Zealand and is beginning to target the U.S. market.

Sanosil is developing a system known as a "fogger" that delivers ionized disinfectant particles into the air. The company says the system can kill infectious agents in areas such as hospital rooms with no wiping or rinsing. Sanosil is working with Christiana Care to test the system.