It pays to be clean. Just ask a husband and wife business team who are turning soap into a multi-million dollar venture.

Click on the "Watch Video" link for a sudsy success story in our second installment of "The Fast 50 Files." 

Cameron and Karina Batty would have never guessed they would be in the soap business together.  But the husband and wife business team has managed to turn their all-natural soap and bath product business into a multi-million dollar venture. 

“It was a big risk, but it’s great,” said Cameron.  “We never expected to get into the soap business but it’s really a natural for my wife because she’s been into skincare products and things like that I’ve never personally imagined myself in the soap business but it’s been great,” he said.

Eight years ago, the Battys discovered Rocky Mountain Soap in the quiet town of Canmore.  Soon after, they bought the business from the original owner and found themselves a two-person team in the soap retail and manufacturing industry. 

“Probably the first three years we worked really really hard,” said Karina.  “Seven days a week especially during the busy times – the summer time and Christmas time – we’d work until two o’clock in the morning because once the store closed, we’d do our clean up and we’d have to manufacture more product in the evening,” she said. 

But their hard work paid off.  Alberta Venture magazine named Rocky Mountain Soap the sixth fastest growing company under twenty million dollars in the province. And it’s one of the few retail chains amongst the big oil and gas companies. So what’s their secret?

“In our business particularly having a good product that people want to come back and re-buy has been essential to us and also packaging.  People like packaging so you have to nail those two things,” said Cameron.

Karina Batty says a set path of where you want your business to go is important. 

“Having a very clear vision of what exactly it is what you want to do it keeps you going whether you realize it or not.  It creates a natural growth but definitely committed to doing something is everything to me,” she said.

But business wasn’t always booming especially at the beginning.  In 2001, the company nearly got washed up when the Battys tried to open up a store in Banff.  Cameron Batty realized it just wasn’t the right time to expand. 

“We had to close down for a year and that was a huge setback for us because we thought we could’ve lost the whole company at that time,” he said.  

But they managed to get through the ordeal by keeping business closer to home. 

“We try to stay focus and we don’t export overseas even though we have the opportunities and we’re not opening any stores in Ontario.  We try to focus on the west so we’re trying to do those sorts of things,” he said. 

In the last three years, Rocky Mountain Soap’s assets and revenues have gone up 197 per cent and 160 per cent respectively.   To accommodate this growth and demand, the company has had to expand five times in the last six years.  In their production facility in Canmore’s Bow Valley Industrial Area, they make about 10 000 bars of soap every week. 

It’s the tight-knit team at Rocky Mountain Soap that really keeps the company going.  Cameron and Karina Batty say having a group of people they can trust and who are capable of doing what they originally were doing themselves is key.

“The people coming up behind us taking over what we use to do actually do a better job than we use to do because it seems like they can focus on it more than we were able to in the past,” she said.   

These days the Battys focus more the strategic side of the business.  And keeping their work and home life balanced has a lot to do with their two-year old daughter, Ruby.

“She’s really helped us and she forces me to take a step back,” said Karina.  “And that’s given me a different perspective on the company and it’s created a lot of advantages for us and it’s allowed us to further define our roles and become more specific to what we provide for our company,” she said.

It’s been a long road for the Battys.  But Cameron says with some commitment, elbow grease, and determination, anybody can open up their own business.

“I don’t think it’s really rocket science to have a good business if you work hard and take care of your customers, I think most people can be successful if they just do that,” he said.   

Rocky Mountain Soap has stores in West Edmonton Mall, Calgary, Canmore, and Banff.  But they hope to open up more stores out West possibly into Vancouver, B.C. 

For more about Rocky Mountain Soap’s products and stores visit www.rockymountainsoap.com.

To check out other companies who landed on Alberta Venture magazine's Top 50 Fastest Growing Companies list, log onto www.albertaventure.com.