It might look like little more than toilet soap, but I am assured that it is an ingenious new invention. Not quite in the same category as the printing press or sliced bread perhaps, but Mr Tasker, European managing director of Mentholatum, maker of products like Deep Heat and Oxy, is convinced that the company’s new anti-viral hand sanitiser will revolutionise protection against germs.

In thick Yorkshire tones, he explains that there are two problems with the hand liquid dispensers that have sprung up to tackle the likes of swine flu.

“Most people have been using anti-bacterial hand sanitisers,” he says. “But swine flu is a virus, so 90% of hand cleaners might as well be put in the bin.”

The second problem is that sanitisers need high volumes of alcohol to kill viruses, but this means that they dry out your hands and make it more likely that the nasties will get in through the cracks. Research has shown that most health workers and hospital patients avoid using them, albeit that this may be as much about laziness as anything. Either way, Mr Tasker is hoping to catch a wave with the Mentholatum’s Response Beta sanitiser, which was invented locally and is the only product of its kind that kills viruses without alcohol.

“People are estimating that it’s a £50million market,” he says, stressing that the new product also kills bacteria and most other viruses. “It’s going to really help spearhead our growth.”

Having launched in the UK two months ago through a deal with 2500 Boots stores, the company is now in talks with the NHS and various international players about the product. And Mr Tasker reckons he has seen enough early enthusiasm that it will contribute annual revenues of between £5m and £10m within two years.

If so, it will vindicate the company’s belief in giving substantial autonomy to its regional divisions. Although Mentholatum is based in Buffalo, New York, and owned by Japanese pharmaceutical giant Rohto, the sanitiser was developed at the European headquarters in East Kilbride in conjunction with Kays Medical of Liverpool.

In a departure from common multinational practice, this was possible because Rohto/Mentholatum does not insist on doing all its research and development at group headquarters. As well as the sanitiser, East Kilbride has also developed a new 100% natural formula for anti-acne range Oxy and, with Aberdeen’s Robert Gordon University, a joint-pain relief gel called Regenovex that launched last month. These efforts chime with the heritage of Mentholatum, which made its name with product innovations in 19th century America with everything from shaving creams to menthol cough syrups. To keep up the tradition, the East Kilbride research staff has been increased from eight to 12 and a new laboratory is being built as part of a £10m investment that will also triple on-site manufacturing capacity when completed early next year.

“It’s a very enlightened corporate landscape,” says Mr Tasker. “The Japanese philosophy is much more long-term than the American one.”

He ought to know, having arrived two years ago from Pfizer, where he was latterly director of the European non-prescription business until he grew disillusioned with working for a company that was “only interested in quarterly performances”.

During a career in healthcare marketing, he has played a role in US eye-care group Bausch & Lomb’s 1996 acquisition of the Award manufacturing site in Livingston, where it last year decided to transfer the work abroad, costing the town 500 jobs.

Mr Tasker vows that Mentholatum will not behave similarly in East Kilbride, having attracted regional selective assistance of £750,000 as part of its expansion. Where the company has previously only manufactured the Deep Heat muscle relief range, the Deep Relief painkiller gel and Mentholatum lip balms at the plant, it will now also make various other products rather than importing them.

In what he excitedly says will be the most advanced tube-making site in Europe, staff levels are being raised to 105, roughly 10 more than before. In other words, the company is receiving £75,000 in public money for each new member of staff.

Mr Tasker, who also oversees the Middle East, Australasia and Africa, appears to have given the company reason for major investment. Beyond product development, his division’s sales have grown 50% in three years to £30m. Profit growth has been slower to around £2m, although he says this is because much of it is being reinvested. The sales increase is largely thanks to 35%-40% growth with Deep Heat over the period, accounting for about half of all sales; and a near-doubling of Oxy sales since it was bought from GlaxoSmithKline four years ago.

He believes that there is still plenty if room for growth in Deep Heat despite that it accounts for three-fifths of sales in its market.

“We are doing a Lucozade on the brand,” he grins. “We are re-energising it. We have just done a major piece of consumer research. We see opportunities to increase the size of the marketplace by focusing on sports, particularly through the Deep Heat patches, and bringing it to younger age groups. It doesn’t hurt that the government advice is now to use topical products [skin applications] rather than oral anti-inflammatories.”

The company will spend £1m on a TV advertising campaign for the product range early next year. This is part of a serious increase in marketing spend across the division from £2.5m two years ago to £5m this year despite that most promotional budgets have been slashed because of the recession. There are also plans to raise it further in future years to cope with product launches.

A fair amount of this year’s budget is going to Oxy. Glaxo had pushed the range into various eastern European markets and Australia before selling up, but it was more or less the same compound as rivals Clearasil and Clean & Clear and it trailed them badly in its main market in the UK.

Mentholatum has since developed its new formula from French marine algae and focused it on teenage boys, producing a £750,000 TV campaign earlier this year.

“We have invested heavily in the technology and the R&D to develop the best possible formulation. Now we’re investing in the marketing to make this a strong brand,” he says.

Mr Tasker makes clear that once the current expansion is finished, there is room for more in East Kilbride in future. “We have a big patch of grass that’s north of the existing facility. There’s room for a total of 100,000sq ft of manufacturing space, which is more than double what we are doing right now.”

On that tantalising note, he starts packing up his sanitisers and various other products and shows me to the exit. If he is going to build an empire, there are countless sprays and lotions to get on with selling first.