A 25-year-old businessman from Cowbridge has been honoured with a British Empire Medal, after he reorganised his bottling business to make over one million bottles of hand sanitiser throughout the pandemic.

Rhys Mallows, managing director of Mallows Bottling, received a British Empire Medal in the Queen's Birthday Honours list for services to the NHS and key workers.

In March 2020, the company's factory in Cowbridge transformed into a full-scale production of sanitiser bottles and gels in less than 10 days, following changes to licensing rules in the UK.

It came as Ethanol, the alcohol which is used to make beverages and sanitiser, was in short supply across Europe with countries including France and Spain, retaining it for their domestic needs.

After securing a deal with a Scottish distiller to supply the spirit, their site has produced 1.3 million bottles of 100ml hand sanitiser and 124,000 litres of the gel in larger containers.

The business is estimated to have sanitised around 81 million hands during the pandemic.