Best-kept, best-smelling business secret in Nixa

Editor's Note: This is the the first of a series of stories profiling each of the five nominees for the W. Curtis Strube Small Business of the Year Award.

by Diane Rarick

SBJ Contributing Writer

Stinkie the skunk, the diaper-clad star of Aire-Master of America's logo since 1963, is poised to become one of America's most recognizable franchised animal mascots. With the national publicity the company has received lately, Stinkie could become as famous as Taco Bell's talking Chihuahua.

Douglas McCauley, Aire-Master's 31-year-old president, was in junior high school when he started working his way to the top of the janitorial supply business his father Jerry started in 1958.

While foregoing a college education and opting for on-the-job training under his father's tutelage, McCauley has used a list of core values, expert consultants, and innovative manufacturing and communication techniques to build a growing manufacturing and franchise business. In 1998, the company had nearly $4 million in sales, and McCauley expects the company to grow 15 percent to 20 percent in 1999 with the national rollout of a retail air freshener.

Aire-Master's business has three components: manufacturing odor-control products, hand soaps and cleaning supplies