From Garage Potpourri to Sweet Scent of Success : Enterprise: Michael Fanning of Huntington Beach has seen sales of his colorful blend of dried flower petals, spices and herbs zoom 1,402% from 1985 to 1989.

As Michael Fanning snaked his way past rows of cloth sacks and big plastic drums stacked in his Huntington Beach warehouse, he paused to take in the sweet fragrance that hung in the air.

“It’s the cinnamon from Indonesia and Sri Lanka, the balsam pine from Canada and other fragrance oils from all over Asia and Europe that make this part of the building smell so Christmasy,” he said.

The fragrance that Fanning described is familiar to most people as potpourri, a colorful blend of dried flower petals, spices and herbs that are popular during the holiday season. This is a busy time of year for Fanning’s company, Potpourri Foundry, which supplies potpourri to such major retailers as Bloomingdale’s, Nordstrom, Mervyn’s and Sears, Roebuck & Co.

Thanks to growing demand for natural fragrance among environmentally conscious consumers, Fanning’s business has blossomed. Founded six years ago, the 40-employee Huntington Beach firm expects sales of roughly $4 million this year.

Potpourri Foundry recently was ranked by Inc. magazine as America’s 238th fastest-growing, privately held company, with sales zooming 1,402% from $246 in 1985 to $3.7 million in 1989.

Until recently, demand for potpourri was mostly seasonal. People would buy potpourri to add fresh scent to their homes during the winter or as holiday decorations. Sales fell off sharply during the summer.

But Fanning said the potpourri business--which competes mainly with chemical aerosol and non-aerosol room fresheners--has been helped by growing environmental awareness.

“People are becoming more aware of their environment and are realizing that aerosol, with its fluorocarbons, is damaging to the environment and plain unhealthy,” Fanning said. “They’re turning to the natural aspects of the home fragrance industry, where the products are biodegradable as well as ornamental.”

This trend has also created an opportunity for Potpourri Foundry to diversify into other natural scent products that can be used year round. Fanning, who learned about the fragrance business from his travels abroad, came up with a line of odor-control products called Mothbusters, a moth repellent, and Caroma, a car freshener.

He has also developed a product called Odor-Defeeters, which are shoe-shaped bags of potpourri that are placed in stored footwear.

Fanning expects to be a little trimmer around the waist come January. “I do a lot of walking around the warehouse in November and December, when we open up the warehouse for retail sales,” said Fanning, who occasionally tugged at his loose-fitting pants as he strode briskly around the building, checking inventory and ringing up customers’ purchases. “That’s how I keep trim.”

Potpourri Foundry will do about 30% to 40% of its annual business during the holidays.

Another factor helping sales this year is the economic slowdown, he said: Potpourri makes an inexpensive gift for cost-conscious shoppers.

Potpourri retails for about $7 per six ounces, Fanning said, though he sells it at his warehouse for about half that.

Fanning started his company in his Long Beach garage six years ago after buying $200 worth of dried petals, spices and other ingredients.

“I saw a need for a fragrance product that was natural and environmentally safe,” he said.

He also realized early on that a good fragrance, like aroma from good food, can bring a sense of well-being to people.

Fanning, who ran a Long Beach graphic-arts shop before starting Potpourri Foundry, likes to recall how he created his early fragrances. He used garden tools to mix flowers, spices, herbs and fragrance oils in a plastic bathtub in his garage. Working nights and weekends, he came up with a fragrance that he thought would sell.

But that was 1985. Environmental awareness was not as trendy as it is now, and friends kidded Fanning about getting into a business that was nothing more than “a grown man playing with dead flowers.”

With sales now in the millions of dollars, Fanning seems to have proven them wrong. And besides, he said, “I’m having a great Christmas.”