Enviroscent Expands Rapidly Via Core Strengths 3PL Partnerships

EnviroScent focuses on product development and marketing, outsourcing its logistics to Saddle Creek, resulting in rapid revenue growth. Identifying and leveraging core competencies is crucial for success. By strategically partnering with a 3PL provider, EnviroScent can concentrate on its strengths, leading to increased efficiency and scalability. This allows them to avoid the complexities and costs associated with managing their own logistics operations, ultimately contributing to their competitive advantage and market expansion.

If the secret to business success lies in playing to one's strengths, then Atlanta-based home fragrance company EnviroScent exemplifies this principle perfectly. Under CEO Nick McKay's leadership, the company achieved 400% revenue growth last year and is poised to maintain similar growth in 2011. However, McKay admits this distinctive company didn't have smooth sailing from the start.

Three years ago, a major retailer wanted to significantly expand its business with EnviroScent. While typically good news, McKay quickly realized their 20-employee operation couldn't internally handle the manufacturing, production, and distribution required to meet the retailer's demands.

Strategic Pivot: Focusing on Core Competencies

"We'd always tried to be both the best home fragrance developer and the best manufacturer," McKay explained. "The rapid growth made this dual-role model unsustainable. We made a strategic decision to focus on what we do best and partner with best-in-class companies for areas where we couldn't achieve world-class capabilities."

EnviroScent ultimately focused on its core business while leveraging third-party logistics (3PL) provider Saddle Creek Corp. for packaging, distribution, transportation, and logistics efficiency. According to McKay, Saddle Creek offered more than traditional 3PL services, including contract manufacturing capabilities.

The 3PL Transformation

By deepening its 3PL partnership, EnviroScent could focus on broader strategic initiatives:

Market expansion: Launching new products and increasing market share
Operational efficiency: Optimizing internal processes and resource utilization
Cost reduction: Decreasing manufacturing and labor costs

The results speak for themselves. While privately held EnviroScent doesn't disclose profit figures, McKay reports strong profitability with revenue quadrupling year-over-year. This success largely stems from the 3PL partnership allowing focus on new product development in the $7 billion North American home fragrance market.

An American Entrepreneurial Story

EnviroScent's origins read like a classic American entrepreneurial tale. In 2001, Jeff Sherwood, a former NASA primatologist and self-described "serial entrepreneur," along with his wife Sharon, believed the world should smell better. They founded a startup offering fragrance solutions. As the company grew, they realized success required leveraging both their strengths and strategic partnerships.

The company's product line includes:

ScentStems: A floral bouquet enhancement product
ScentSicles: Fragrance ornaments that give Christmas trees, wreaths, and garlands the scent of freshly cut Douglas fir, white pine, and blue spruce
ScentSticks: Pure essential oil-infused sticks that provide long-lasting fragrance for home air freshening

EnviroScent products have featured in national events like the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting and other holiday celebrations.

3PL Partnership: Overcoming Seasonal Demand Challenges

Years ago, seasonal product demand nearly overwhelmed EnviroScent when a major retailer's requirements strained operations. The company realized it needed 3PL support to share manufacturing burdens. In spring 2010, after evaluating over a dozen providers, EnviroScent selected Saddle Creek.

"No single company combined pure manufacturing with 3PL capabilities, so we assessed each firm's ability to extend their expertise," McKay said. He noted Saddle Creek's advantages in ISO-compliant processes, particularly in co-packaging, and their ability to extend these capabilities into manufacturing.

By mid-May 2010 when the partnership began, EnviroScent's highly seasonal business focused on fall and Christmas holiday periods. "We operate on three principles with retail partners—on time, error-free, and complete," McKay emphasized. "Quality and zero defects are mandatory. Our focus is achieving all three throughout the season."

Supply Chain Optimization and Lean Improvements

After Saddle Creek took over in mid-May 2010, it relocated EnviroScent's manufacturing to an Atlanta facility it operated. By mid-July, before peak season, shipments began from this location.

The priority became perfecting EnviroScent's supply chain. Saddle Creek met with suppliers to optimize manufacturing processes. As peak production approached, EnviroScent transferred manufacturing operations. The companies then collaborated to identify and implement necessary lean process improvements to meet aggressive 90-day goals for the new manufacturing process under 3PL management.

According to McKay, the 3PL partner provided a comprehensive solution including materials procurement, light manufacturing, order fulfillment, warehousing, and distribution. These integrated capabilities met EnviroScent's stringent specifications—ultimately enabling focus on core competencies.

Saddle Creek: Expanding Beyond Tradition

Scott Trahan, Saddle Creek's Atlanta operations general manager, explained that while warehousing, transportation, and packaging form their core business, EnviroScent's well-analyzed proposal allowed expansion into non-traditional areas like manufacturing.

"It was somewhat natural to move into manufacturing," Trahan said. "But there was both a short-term and long-term plan." He noted the biggest challenge was adapting to EnviroScent's operations, as Saddle Creek typically worked with larger organizations and needed to adjust to a smaller, highly entrepreneurial company with rapidly changing needs and product innovations.

Year-Round Demand Balance

In 2011, EnviroScent's business became less seasonal than the previous year's holiday-focused operations. With Saddle Creek's help and new non-holiday products, the company achieved balanced twelve-month demand. "We ensure these products are competitively priced," McKay noted.

When asked if he was surprised by his 3PL's efficiency, McKay responded: "We hold ourselves and partners to high standards and aren't often surprised. I'd say we're very pleased with performance, and it validates our partner selection process."

Process and Communication: Keys to Success

McKay attributes success to strong emphasis on process and communication. Weekly in-person meetings with Saddle Creek personnel focus on detailed discussions about new product development.

"Decisions must be fully informed to optimize product manufacturing," he explained. "Our discussions rarely focus on what we're delivering this week—though that's essential for any supply chain partner. Instead, they typically center on R&D and product line management."

Outsourcing Advice: Choosing the Right Partner

McKay advises potential outsourcers to ensure they're "putting a square peg in a square hole." He recommends looking 3-5 years ahead to anticipate future challenges. "It's not just about products and manufacturing—core values must align from day one. Otherwise, failure is inevitable."

The Saddle Creek arrangement works because both companies share core values: long-term perspectives guided by short-term goals, well-capitalized operations, and detail-oriented employees who are expert thinkers in their fields.

Commitment to "Made in America"

The partnership enables EnviroScent to maintain U.S. manufacturing, remaining one of few "Made in America" companies in its sector. According to McKay, the 3PL partner not only helps meet key client deadlines but also provides creative ideas for cost savings, process simplification, and distribution improvements.

For example, outsourcing manufacturing to 3PL control reduced EnviroScent's labor needs by 20-30%. This success led to additional collaborations with Saddle Creek on processes including design and product development.

For Saddle Creek, a major benefit is the ability to market these expanded capabilities to other clients seeking manufacturing assistance. As Trahan noted: "We get the 'wow' factor from prospects who say, 'I didn't know you could do that.'"

For McKay, the goal remains "sustained excellence"—specifically seeking scalability improvements, continuously enhanced processes, and better performance against key metrics. The company aims to continue U.S. production while expanding global sales through process improvements.

"Speed is the currency of our world," McKay concluded. "When opportunities arise, we evaluate and deploy resources to address them. We want to deliver exceptional products, and we have a supply chain that can keep pace."