"Secret" Recipe Results In Thriving Soap Business

"Secret" Recipe Results In Thriving Soap Business SPECIALTY/SERVICES Specialty/Services 27-4-8 Larry Wagner doesn't quite fit the image of a typical soap salesman. But the soap he's selling isn't typical, either. Wagner's Maysville Soap Company sells soap that's 55 percent corn and 45 percent "something else." His secret formula, developed by a former Ivy League university research chemist with roots in western Indiana, contains only four ingredients. Wagner insists that it cleans hands better than just about anything else on the market. It also cleans concrete floors, livestock buildings, laundry, and more. Wagner is pretty much a one-man band, producing, packaging, and marketing Maysville Soap by himself. The company is named after what was once a good-sized Northwest Indiana town centered around a packing plant. "It's where my great-grandfather and grandfather lived, but when the packing plant closed, the town disappeared," he says. So even though he lives close to where the old town was, his address is Attica. Wagner built the equipment he uses to make the soap. "The mixer is from a junked ready-mix concrete truck," he says. "I mounted it in a building and power it with a Ford 306 industrial gasoline engine." He also uses a seed-grading machine and a corn cracking mill, both of which are refurbished antique machines. Because the soap is a powder, rather than liquid or bar, it needs a special dispenser. Wagner designed one and builds them as he needs them. Wagner has been in the seed cleaning business most of his life, so processing the corn to make his soap is second nature to him. Packaging and selling it, though, has been challenging. "I started marketing it with a booth at a county fair," he says. "I gave the Fair Queen a box of soap. Her dad operates a small shop on his farm. He liked the soap so much, he's buying about a case a month now, just to clean his hands and his shop floors." Last year, the Indiana FFA endorsed his product and actually invited him to sell it at their building at the State Fair. He's planning on being there again this year. Other regular customers include farmers, repair shops, and restaurants. He's pretty sure that once you've tried Maysville Corn Soap, you'll want more. "It liquifies immediately when you add water and doesn't leave a residue on skin or clothes, doesn't dry out your skin, and it's 100 percent biodegradable," he says. "You wouldn't believe how good clothes look after they're washed with this soap." The soap is shipped in 2-liter wide-mouthed plastic containers. They sell for $4.50. He says one container will last a typical household three or four weeks for normal handwashing. If you're using it for laundry or cleaning hands in the shop, you'll go through more. Wagner hopes to expand the business by setting up distributor/dealers in other areas who will give customers the same type of service he gives his local customers. "I don't sell in stores or on the Internet," he says. "I leave a self-addressed postcard with customers when I deliver their soap. They just drop it in the mail when the supply is getting low. When I get the postcard, I make a delivery and leave another card. I call this my æe-mail' ordering system because it's easy for them to do," he says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Larry Wagner, Maysville Soap Company, 2005 East 1400 North, Attica, Ind. 47918 (ph 756 762-6874).

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