BusinessTN

After years of hearing kids complain that the fake fog at a Laser Tag/skating rink fun center in Cookeville burned their eyes and noses and even aggravated their asthma, Chris Markgraf, who owned the facility (and is mildly asthmatic), and Adam Pogue, who managed it, decided to do something about their so-called fog issues. In 2003, with the help of the chemistry department at Tennessee Tech University and friends and family (Markgraf's dad has a degree in biochemistry), they created a fog fluid made from pharmaceutical grade chemicals and lab grade de-ionized water that satisfied their needs in more ways than one.

"In the process of coming up with our own formula to get rid of all the problems that we were having with the fog, we came up with a low-cost solution that had about an hour hang time," Pogue says. The fog they previously had used would dissipate in about 20 minutes, meaning more was needed to keep their facility "foggy," which in turn meant a higher cost.

Within six months after they began using the new concoction, a fun center owner from Kentucky visited the facility and wanted to know where he could get some of that fog. He told others in the fun center world about it, and before long, Markgraf says the phones at his Cookeville business were ringing off the hook.

"They weren't calling to book parties or to do things at the fun center; they were calling from other parts of the country, saying, 'Will you make some fog for us? We heard you have great fog,'" Markgraf says. "I looked over at Adam one day and said, "Adam, I think we're in business, whether we want to be or not.'"

Today, the pair, which moved the Froggy's Fog facility to Columbia in 2008, sells several types of fog to a slew of customers nationwide, including big names such as Universal Studios, Busch Gardens, Six Flags, Paramount Productions and Cirque Du Soleil. Markgraf says they've experienced a 200% annual growth rate each year for the past four or five years.

After they began generating buzz within the fun center industry, they added their product to eBay and Yahoo and then launched a Froggy's Fog Web site.

"For the next year or two, we received calls from people who found us on the Web, and they were always telling us of a new reason they used fog, whether it be for theater, photography, movies, Halloween," Pogue says. "We just had thousands of uses that people continually called about."

They saw an initial spike in sales during the months of August, September and October because of purchases made by haunted houses, so they decided to target the haunted house market. They visited industry trade shows to promote their product, and soon, the haunt community was hooked.

"The quality of this fog juice is so superior to others we have used," says Timothy Gavinski, president of the International Association of Haunted Attractions. "They set the standard for customer service at Froggy's Fog."

Yet, in addition to haunted houses, amusement parks and musical performances, Froggy's Fog supplies products to the U.S. Military and fire and rescue services for training purposes. (They developed a product specifically for that industry while working with WHP, a Kansas-City based company that builds fire training towers.)

"We did a lot of testing, and we came up with a product that the Kansas City Fire Department guys said was the closest to real smoke that they've ever trained in," Pogue says.

So far, Pogue says the economy has not affected business, but he believes the diversity in the industries that they supply will allow Froggy's Fog to continue to thrive through the downturn. In addition, this year, they're introducing a few new products, including snow fluid for holiday events.

As they continue to help their customers find that perfect haze, the future at Froggy's Fog couldn't look brighter.