Urine Off cleans up

Urine Off cleans up

The dirty work of removing the stain

and smell of urine is a key to one

company's fortunes. It's a bright future.

Who knew cleaning urine could be so lucrative?

Certainly not Bill Hadley in 2003. That's when Environmental Biotech, the Sarasota-based company he was running at the time that focused on selling grease-eating bacteria to restaurants, developed a new product for cleaning just that kind of substance.

It was called Urine Off and it worked by using a combination of enzymes to remove the stain and smell of urine on just about any substance.

After a few years of slow sales, where momentum never stretched as far as it seemed like it would, the product is now on the cusp of taking off.

Hadley, who sold Environmental Biotech last year but kept the separate company he spun off to manufacture and sell Urine Off, is projecting at least $6 million in sales next year. That would double the company's $3 million in revenues in 2008. Hadley also says the past few months have been so hot with new orders that $10 million in 2009 revenues is a distinct possibility.

Urine Off, therefore, is doing something else previously unthinkable: It's eliminating the stench of the current economic downturn, at least for one company.

"It is absolutely amazing to be at the helm of a company experiencing explosive growth while the economy is in the throes of death, destruction and carnage," says Hadley. "I almost feel a little guilty."

But big revenues are what Hadley had hoped for, back when he was pushing the product on the Home Shopping Network to generate sales and industry recognition. The company's 20-employee corporate office remains in Sarasota, but Hadley opened a 160,000-square-foot manufacturing and distribution center in Hickory, N.C. a few years ago.

Now Hadley's about to count Petco, a national drug store chain and a regional grocery store chain in the Midwest as new clients. Hadley declined to name the latter two companies, as those deals aren't official yet.

Another key development leading up to the projected boom in Urine Off sales lies in hotels and hospitals. That market is the impetus behind www.blacklightclean.org, a Web site and side business that Hadley and his team unveiled at a hotel industry conference in New York City last month. The idea is to target any business that has beds, another potential spot where Urine Off could come in to play.

The Web site, which should be up and running early next year, will serve as a customer verification for hotels and hospitals that sign up for a Urine Off cleaning program. Doctors Hospital in Sarasota has already signed up for a test run, Hadley says.

From pet stores to hotels, the potential market is diverse, which is both a blessing and a challenge.

"Our future is so far over the top that we don't even have our arms around it yet," Hadley says. "It's pretty insane."

- Mark Gordon