IT'S A TOUGH WAY TO GO
"St. Augustine Company Seeks National Sales"

THE BUSINESS JOURNAL
By: Lisa R. Schoolcraft

Toni Main has a cleaning product she thinks is Tufenuf to merit national attention.

But is it tough enough to make it to store shelves nationwide?

Tuf Enuf is a cleaning product bottled in St. Augustine. Main and her husband, Ed, do business under Wallace & Sons, which they bought in 1995.

Tufenuf is mixed by a Vero Beach chemical company and then trucked to St. Augustine.

Main, president of Wallace & Sons, and her daughter Karen McGee, general manager, work the bottling machines in the 5,000-square-foot warehouse, filing quart and gallon bottles with blue liquid.

The product could double or triple the family business, said Robert McGee, sales manager of the family business and Karen's husband. In 2001, gross revenue was $700,000.

Tufenuf is sold predominantly in marine stores, but rather than being known as a marine cleaner, "we want it in hardware stores," Toni Main said. "It is a great cleaner and degreaser. People call us and tell us about other uses. They use it as a carper cleaner, in pressure washers."

Main and her family travel to boat and marine shows, handing out 4-ounce samples to generate interest in Tufenuf.

"You give those thins away and once people use it, they come back for more," Main said.

The company has also started to advertise in target markets, such as fishing and boating publications, she said.

But two advertising firms say taking a product national is no easy feat.

"There are vehicles by which they can take it national, but everything takes money," said Corris Caro, president and creative director of Boss advertising in Palm Coast, which does marketing and advertising for St. Augustine clients.

Small businesses need to hire a marketing company that will do research.

"They will need someone who will do some test market surveys and focus groups," she said.

"We're a wholesaler/manufacturer," Main said. "I don't necessarily want the public coming to me. I want customers going to my dealers. And I want more distributors and dealers."

The search for a good distributor also takes research, Caro said.

Advertising is another part of going national, but for many small businesses, advertising budgets are small.

"You can't outspend them [the competition,] so you have to outsmart them," said Keith Gold, CEO and president of Gold & Associates in Ponte Vedro Beach.

There are at least two issues for taking a product national.

"One is getting the stores to give you the shelf space and the other is getting the consumers to like your product," Gold said. "It may be easier to get the consumers to like your product. To get on the shelf of Kmart, you have to knock something else off."

Main recently redesigned the label "so it has more shelf appeal," she said. "We went to some time and expense to get just the right colors. We had to have more eye appeal."

Main is wise to continue to target a niche market, such as the marine and boating industry, Gold said. By starting small, a demand is created that could take the product national.