This 45-year-old Missouri brand became an unexpected TikTok star (and earned its team $1M in bonuses)

TikTok turned a Smithville, Missouri-based, family-owned business into an overnight sensation; now the tight-knit team behind the viral odor eliminator is trying to preserve the scent of success.

Odorcide has been a staple in veterinary offices and animal shelters for years, but thanks to influencers and its ability to eliminate — and not just mask — odors, the company is earning praise from a whole new customer segment.

“Never in our wildest dreams did we expect social media to do what it has for our business, especially because we have always been a distributor-driven company,” said Erin Hart, vice president and CFO of Odorcide. “So to move to that (direct-to-consumer) sector was a new eye-opening experience, but it’s been huge. And we are just enjoying the ride.”

The business originally started as the Thornell Corporation in 1981 at Cornell University with its first product Skunk-Off. Hart’s father, Mike McGuire, acquired the business in 2000 and moved it to Smithville.

Boasting a solution for every odor issue, Odorcide now offers about 20 products for veterinary offices, pet care workers, professional cleaners, and homeowners to eliminate orders from pets, bathrooms, smoke, mildew, trash, plus for odors on carpets, laundry, kennels, and even boats.

Trial-sized bottles of Odorcide’s popular KOE (Kennel Odor Eliminator) product; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

Moose and Milkshake, the highland cows featured in some of Odorcide’s latest popular social media videos; courtesy photo

In addition to traditional wholesale offerings, the products are now available on the company’s website, Amazon, Chewy, and TikTok Shop.

“The growth I’ve seen take place is something I never thought possible,” said Will O’Malley, national sales manager for Odorcide who has been with the company for 12 years. “The social media landscape has really changed the way the business is being done.”

“If you find the right person online, they’ll make a minute-long video,” he added, noting the excitement of being at the forefront of the influencer push. “And if they’re trusted individuals, and it’s a product that works, they’ll say, ‘Hey, this works. It’s great; buy it.’ And people just jump to buy it. It’s very different than the advertising avenues that we’ve looked at in the past.”

After the first influencer praised Odorcide’s KOE (Kennel Odor Eliminator) — the most popular product — Hart said employees were scrambling all over town to get the shipping and packaging supplies they needed to keep up with the demand.

“It was all hands on deck trying to make enough product,” she explained. “It was literally an overnight thing and it hit us all by surprise. But it was so fun seeing it grow and learning what we needed to learn. Even though it was a crash course, it was huge.”

Now the company is embracing the social media spotlight, even showcasing the McGuire family’s dogs and two highland cows — Moose and Milkshake.

“Our social media person has been amazing in helping us grow,” Hart noted.

Behind the science

The McGuire family — including Mike’s son, Andy, who serves as vice president and general manager, and son-in-law, Jared Hart, who is in charge of internet sales development — is banking on Odorcide’s unique formula to sustain the recent growth the company has seen from direct-to-consumer sales, they shared.

“I can’t tell you how many times we get calls from people,” Mike McGuire said, “saying, ‘I’ve tried everything. I can’t get rid of this odor. I bought your stuff. What is in this stuff? It’s unbelievable. It stopped the odor.’ We hear that time and time and time again. It just works.”

Odorcide eliminates odor at the source, the company said, noting most over-the-counter products simply mask the smell. (Its safe, natural and biodegradable formula bonds with and absorbs the odor-causing molecule, eliminating the odor on contact, Mike McGuire explained.)

“The vast majority of products in the odor elimination arena are enzymatic; ours is not,” he said. “Enzyme products are good for elimination purposes, but they are a live bacteria. So they’re subject to outside influences. Any detergent or disinfectant that you may have used prior has surfactants that are going to impact that enzyme and its ability to work. Where ours is not affected by any of those things. It works regardless.”

“Our product simply destroys the odor molecule’s ability to emit a vapor and it works instantly,” he continued. “It’s permanent, so the odor goes away. It’s much more effective and easier to use than the enzyme product.”

A variety of Odorcide products line shelves at the company’s Smithville, Missouri, headquarters; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

Enzymatic products are also temperature sensitive, O’Malley noted, and the shelf life starts ticking on those products as soon as they are opened.

“Our products, they’re going to work just as well as the day you bought it, two years down the road,” he continued. “And they work immediately on contact and regardless of what else has been used to treat the source of the odor.”

“It’s really unique,” he added. “It’s a one-of-a-kind product.”

Odorcide is the answer to the smelliest of life’s problems, Andy McGuire acknowledged.

“A lot of people that are dealing with odor issues have to go through a lot of struggles,” he explained. “But if they would have just found Odorcide first, they wouldn’t have had to. So you can rest assured that you have the right thing in your hands now.”

Erin Hart speaks with her father, Mike McGuire, at Odorcide in Smithville, Missouri; photo by Nikki Overfelt Chifalu, Startland News

Refining the business recipe

In the early 1980s, Cornell University was studying skunks and needed help eliminating the odors they left behind, so they reached out to Gary Reed, who developed Skunk-Off, Mike McGuire shared. Reed then launched the Thornell Corporation in 1981 in Penfield, New York, with Skunk-Off as the flagship product. He found a market for it with veterinarians, who often get calls from clients whose dogs have been sprayed by skunks.

“I got involved with them about the mid-80s when Gary Reed was looking for some additional distribution,” the family patriarch explained. “My background is veterinary wholesale distribution, and we became friends, and ultimately, he hired me to help him grow the business through wholesalers throughout the U.S.”

Reed developed more products to target veterinary clinics — including those to eliminate urine and feces odors — and Mike McGuire helped with distribution.

“I recognized, I think early on, that there was a lot of potential for this product,” he explained. “Knowing how it worked and how it compared to others — and how it was far better as far as the effectiveness — I felt like I could expand the business pretty quickly.”

Eventually in 2000, Mike McGuire noted, he took over the Thornell Corporation and moved it to Smithville.

“It’s where we lived,” he noted. “It’s where the kids were going to school. Everything about us as a family was here in Smithville, so it was obvious that we should be here.”

With the acquisition, he received the rights to all of the veterinary products, plus a product called Odorcide that was targeted toward carpet cleaning professionals.

“We threw more money at it and added additional distribution and the Odorcide brand grew as much as the other business did,” he added.

Once he moved the company to Smithville, he eventually rebranded the company to Odorcide and also moved production to Smithville, with his son and daughter joining him after college.

The three of them used a small, two-head, overflow filling machine.

“We would stand in that back room and fill bottles,” he explained. “We’d seal them, label them, put them in boxes. So we were selling it and making it and everything in between. And again, the business continued to grow.”

Now production is fully automated with four to five fill lines and the company has 25 employees, Mike McGuire noted. Since the acquisition, the family has evolved Ordorcide from five products to about 20. They have grown from distributing to just veterinary clinics to expanding to professional cleaning businesses to now selling directly to the consumer.

“From the time we took over to now, it’s night-and-day different,” Andy McGuire said. “It’s been a pretty exciting progression, operations-wise, and we continue to grow. We’re continuing to add and update and upgrade all of our equipment and to increase capacity and efficiency and quality.”

Odorcide’s success, Mike McGuire acknowledged, is attributed to how effective the product is and to the people.

“I just create a pathway and then get out of the way,” he continued. “They do most of the work. And it’s been quite a ride here the past few years.”

“I’m most proud of the fact that I’ve helped create an opportunity for these people to make a living,” he added. “And we reward them as best possible. We paid out over a million dollars in bonuses last year and we hope to be able to do the same thing in the coming years.”

Stuck on Smithville

Just as it was important for Mike McGuire to move Odorcide to Smithville, the family believes it’s important to give back to the community that they call home, they shared.

“I grew up in this community,” Andy McGuire explained. “So personally, it’s exciting to be able to support the families of this community with employment opportunities and opportunities to share in the successes of this business.”

O’Malley said the company also partners with local veterinary schools, animal shelters and nonprofits to provide free products. The team is looking into sponsorship opportunities for low-cost pet immunization pop-up clinics.

“Anything that we can do to help support our community and to support our community’s pets, we take a very strong stance in trying to be involved as much as possible,” he explained. “Community is a major part of what we try to do here.”