Published: March 27, 2006 09:19 am      

The smell of success

Lockport woman makes custom soap business a worldwide smash

LOCKPORT — Making glycerin soaps, bath bombs and other high-end bath products is so simple, even a 3-year-old could do it — and Donna Rug has proof.

Marketing and selling those soaps to customers around the world, however, takes something more than an elementary knowledge of chemistry.

But Donna and her husband Norbert — along with a support team of neighbors, relatives and other Lockport locals — have made the success of their thriving Internet bath products business seem like a happy accident.

It started a little more than three years ago, with a friend who received lots of “bath bombs” — the kind that fizz and fill a bathtub with scents and oil — and other bath products for gifts, but didn’t actually like them. Donna Rug was her re-gifting recipient.

When Rug went online one day to see how much buying her own would cost, she was shocked to see prices of $6 for just one.

Coincidentally, she found out how simple the product was — basically an acid, oil and fragrances — when she helped her then 2- and 3-year-old grandchildren make some for Mother’s Day.

“I found a basic recipe on the Internet, and it worked,” Rug said. “I think they purposely leave some parts out of those recipes, but I’ve gotten it down by now.”

Rug, who lives on Grove Street, and former partner Lisa Crandall started out small, making soaps and a handful of other products to sell on consignment at nearby gift stores and craft shows. She refined her wares by giving samples to a young neighbor and her own daughter, Dawn.

Meanwhile, Donna’s husband Norbert, who works at Metal Cladding in Lockport, tried to launch a Web site for his wife’s new venture.

“I struggled with it off and on for a year, but never could really get the idea of what I needed to do,” he said. “Then, one day, on holiday at Thanksgiving, it just clicked. I spent hours and hours up there, but it worked.”

Without paying for placement or advertising, Akron Grove Bath Products’ Web site now ranks near the top of any Google search for “custom bath products” or just “bath products.” Norbert has a working knowledge of search engine rankings, but still doesn’t know exactly what got his site to the top.

That kind of ranking pays off, such as when a resort hotel in the British West Indies — the kind that charges $1,300 a night — inquired about stocking their bathrooms with the Rugs’ products.

“We thought it might be a scam at first,” Norbert Rug said. “We’ve gotten a few people before, who pretend to be businesses and ask for ‘free samples’ ... but they turned out legit, and then they placed this, well, this huge order.”

For a business where everything is custom-made in the kitchen, an initial order for 2,500 bars of soap means some long nights. But the order was filled and shipped, and now the hotel wants about 10,000 bars each year.

Akron Grove’s line of soap shapes and fragrances expands with each new mold and scented oil that’s acquired. Donna’s daughter Dawn stopped by on a gray afternoon last week to see what her mother thought of a new “tomato” scent — after a positive response, it’s likely to earn a place among the more than 100 products they offer.

The Rugs were reluctant to disclose an exact sales figure, but Donna, 56, said sales have doubled almost each year they’ve been in business.

The business is still more of a supplement to the couple’s income, however, and Norbert, 58, has no illusions of leaving his job.

“It lets me spend time with my grandchildren, and I genuinely enjoy filling each order,” Donna Rug said.

“The only down side is, we go through a lot of microwaves,” her husband said.

Contact Kevin Purdy at 282-2311, Ext. 2251.