BioLargo Featured in Supply Chain Solutions Magazine

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Smell of Success

BioLargo Inc. helps pet owners love their furry friends even more with odor-control products.

Animal owners who face the challenge of providing a safe, clean living environment now have the answer to their problems with BioLargo Inc.’s Odor-No-More products.

Odor-No-More is a multi-line brand of products proven to eliminate odor and moisture within animal enclosures. The products have pro­ven to reduce flies and promote better respiratory and foot health to create a cleaner, dryer, safer and healthier enclosure. Odor-No-More drastically reduces the amount of bedding consumed and replaced in animal enclosures, saving time and money.

The products are sprinkled in the bedding and litter box. The urine is quickly absorbed and the ammonia is rapidly eliminated, eliminating unpleasant odors. In turn, animals will not have to live in urine-soaked enclosures and the products promote healthier feet and skin. “It’s about odor and moisture control, and it applies to a multitude of industries,” President Dennis Calvert says.

Once the three-core products found the path to market, new markets began to open up. BioLargo found a strategic partner in E.T. Horn and agreed to work with the company as a nonexclusive contract manufacturer and master distributor in 2009.

“Their products fit our animal wellness profile and channels to market,” says E.T. Horn Vice President of Sales Lisa Alley-Zarkades. “BioLargo and its wholly-owned subsidiary Odor-No-More Inc. are innovators and leaders with new technology that we believe will revolutionize various waste management practices for animals.”

Odor-No-More received a Best New Product award in 2009 at SuperZoo, the pet industry’s largest show. Since then, the core products have been picked up by major suppliers and retail locations in addition to being used by veterinarians.

Natural Solutions
BioLargo is an intellectual property company that features the applications of its natural technologies. The company strives to harness and deliver what it calls “Nature’s Best Solution” – free-iodine – in a safe, efficient, environmentally sensitive and cost-effective manner. It works by combining micronutrient salts with liquid from any source to deliver free-iodine on demand, in controlled dosages, to balance efficacy of performance with concerns about toxicity.

“Our primary focus is to find commercial partners who want to make products better,” Calvert says. “Our technologies primarily serve as disinfectants and for odor and moisture control.”

BioLargo focuses on finding product applications for its patent-protected chemistry. The cost-effective, inorganic compounds are embedded in absorbent products that can be used for bed pads, diapers, surgical drapes, transportation packages for hazardous materials, wound dressings and bandages. The technology also can be delivered in just about any physical form – liquids, tablets, powders, sprays, washes and gas phase delivery systems – making it flexible for just about any need an industry may have.

“It is a rare find to have such a simple, environmentally-friendly and effective solution to so many applications for odor, contamination, cleaning and overall health improvement for animals and their owners,” Alley-Zarkades says.

“Iodine is nature’s cleanser for the Earth,” Calvert says. It’s a natural disinfectant. Our discovery isn’t iodine. The discovery is we can easily deliver and control the free-iodine for use in products. What we bring into the marketplace is our natural chemistry that is safe and effective, non-staining and has no known acquired resistance capability.”

‘Culture of Collaboration’
The global financial crisis makes getting capital difficult, Calvert says. Another challenge is finding the best way to market its unique products. “These are two very common issues for a company like ours,” Calvert says. “Fortunately, our first commercial product focus and our strategic partnership with the ET Horn Company gave us the resources to push through and make things successful.

“The key is finding the right areas to focus on and make sure we found the right partner,” he adds. “Supply chain success and a culture of collaboration are critical.”

Like any new relationship, a company must anticipate the needs of the other party, Calvert explains. He describes partnerships as valuable assets in a strategy, such as the synergy between BioLargo and E.T. Horn. “We are thankful for what they do for us,” he says.

For E.T. Horn, the sentiment is mutual. “Since E.T. Horn is a cutting-edge technology and science-based raw material supplier, the relationship with BioLargo and Odor-No-More is a perfect match,” Alley-Zarkades says. “BioLargo has put an amazing investment into the science and technology market over the years.

“Plus, we understand each other very well,” she adds. “E.T. Horn is very scientifically-based with a high level of expertise in chemistry, scientific process and a technical sales approach across all our divisions. We are working hard to get the message to the industry, customers and channels that will help their BioLargo’s products expand their presence within main stream retail. Once an end-consumer sees the product perform, it is an immediate sale. There is simply nothing in the marketplace that can outperform these products.”