Dollars and scents

Beyond the products, Keith Ainsley also hosts a popular hunting show.
By DON SHILLING
VINDICATOR BUSINESS EDITOR
BAZETTA -- Deer urine isn't pleasant to talk about or even think about, but one local businessman knows its importance to hunters.
Keith Ainsley of Bazetta Township, also known as Doc, is selling a variety of products based on deer urine to hunters and stores around the world.
The key -- if you don't mind him saying -- is to collect fresh urine, mix it with the right ingredients and sell it to hunters in the same season. Hunters use Doc's Deer Scents to attract the animals.
The product works so well that Doc's fills orders from as far away as Hawaii, Germany and England. Most of the sales, however, are in the eastern half of the United States and Canada.
To collect fresh urine, you need deer. Ainsley keeps 100 of them at the deer farm behind his house at 440 S. Mecca St.
Products created from the deer's urine have become so popular that Ainsley has branched off into other products, including sprays to attract deer or cover up human aromas. These products don't use urine.
But Ainsley is more than a innovative retailer. He's also a showman.
He also hosts a television show -- "Doc's Team Extreme's Big Game Adventures" -- that has become the No. 1 rated hunting show in the nation.
An archery company recently hitched onto his increasing popularity by releasing a Doc's signature line of bows.
How it came about
All of this business activity was born from a hunch.
In 1995, Ainsley bought four deer so he could observe them, figuring this would make him a better hunter.
He learned how they communicated and how they postured in different circumstances. Then he realized something basic -- their urine was yellow. He looked at a bottle of deer attractant that he had bought, and the liquid was black.
"That was the biggest eye-opening experience that I've ever had in my life," said the 43-year-old former Marine.
He used a jar to collect some urine from his deer and took it on a hunting trip to see what would happen if he put out fresh urine. A buck came right up, smelled the urine and started nosing all around.
"Once he knew the urine was fresh, he had to find her. He went crazy looking for her," Ainsley said.
In 1998, he developed a way to collect urine and then built a collection building, so he could offer his product to others. The crew that put up the building told their friends, and they bought so much of the urine that the sales paid for the building in the first year.
Word about the product spread quickly among local hunters, said Chris Creed, who now works in sales for Doc's.
"He'd walk into a store with a cardboard box with glass bottles, and he'd have most of them sold by the time he left the store," Creed said.
Through trial and error, Ainsley developed a formula with certain additives so the product could be bottled in colorful plastic containers. He also developed a refrigeration system and more advanced collection methods.
Grew quickly
The business spread quickly so Ainsley quit his work with the family business, Ainsley Oil in Cortland, and devoted himself to Doc's. In 2002, he put up a large building for processing, warehousing and collection.
He doesn't divulge much about the process nor anything about his sales, but he did show off his deer from an observation deck above their indoor pen.
"We have employees who haven't even seen this," he said.
The deer stand or lay on a steel grating so that their urine is collected below and sent into a refrigeration system.
Ainsley said the deer spend 24 hours outside before coming in for 24 hours. He said his goal is to keep the deer contented because any sign of stress will show up in their urine.
All but one, which is one of his original four, were born on the farm.
"The deer are like pets," he said.
Right now, it's too early to collect urine for Doc's products that will be sold for the fall hunting season. Instead, Ainsley collects urine for other companies that make deer scent products.
"Even when you don't think you're buying Doc's, you may be buying Doc's," he said.
Anything with his label, however, will be bottled no sooner than the end of August, he said. Bottling of some products doesn't start until October.
To ensure freshness, the company also collects unsold products from stores at the end of the season and issues them a credit.
The company has four full-time employees and part-timers reach 14 during the peak packing season. There also are six sales representatives.
Created a TV show
In 2003, Ainsley became upset over the way hunting programs were displaying his products. He decided he could do it better and created his own TV show.
Backchannelmedia, a Boston media tracking company, said the show aired more times last week than any other hunting show. Its 149 airings were 21 more than the next closest show.
The program, which features local hunts as well as far-away places such as Africa and Alaska, is shown on networks such as the Men's Channel and Sportsman's Channel.
Ainsley said his production company, MDK Productions, shoots between 25 and 40 hunts a year. He is the host on most of them, and he goes on 15 to 25 of the trips.
The staff consists of a dozen hunters who work the show for free in return for an expense-paid hunting trip. The hunters do earn commission by selling sponsorships for the show.
Accent Media of Howland turns the footage into a final product.
In January, Whisper Creek Archery launched a Doc's signature line of bows. The line will be available at Dick's and Gander Mountain later this spring, Ainsley said.
Whisper Creek has been a sponsor of the TV show, and recently some local investors bought the company and moved its offices to Girard. The bows still are made in Utah.
Despite all this activity, Ainsley said he's not done growing. He doesn't want to say what's coming next but he did say that it will be related to bow hunting.
"With our scents, we've come as close to perfection as possible," he said. "That comfort zone has allowed me to focus on the TV show and building the Doc's brand."
shilling@vindy.com