A business model that relies on a scent that is always changing can be quite a challenge.

Just ask Anne Loomis, co-owner of Paine Products in Auburn. 

“It’s a crazy business,” said Loomis. 

The smell of balsam fir branches ranges from a soft subtle pine scent to almost an overpowering smell, said Loomis. The scent constantly changes depending on time of season and other factors and “we have no idea why.”

“It’s an interesting business because of that,” said Loomis. 

Loomis runs the balsam fir incense and gift company with her brothers John and Dave Vigue.

The company opened in 1931 and burned to the ground in 1989. 

Their father, Guy Vigue, bought the company’s ashes soon after and rebuilt the company from the ground up. A custom-made machine that cuts log cabin incense burners and a few charred business invoices, which are now framed on the office wall, are about all that survived the blaze. “The fire took everything,” said John Vigue.

“Dad knew how to run a business, but had no idea how to make incense,” said Loomis about the challenge of “starting a business from a pile of ashes.”  

Creating scent-filled Paine products begins when local woodsmen drop off “tippers” one pickup truck load at a time. The last 12 to 18 inches of a balsam fir branch is all Paine Products is interested in. “It’s just the tips that create what we do,” said John Vigue. 

The tips are dried for up to six weeks before being ground down. 

The balsam fir is then either pressed into incense or stuffed by hand into pillows, draft stops and various gift items. 

More than 200,000 pounds of ground balsam fir is used each year, said Vigue. Much of that is stuffed during the fall, while getting ready for the holidays. “We have a very fast-paced fall,” said Loomis.

“We have customers tell us that our products remind them of the holidays,” said Vigue.   

Up to 200 orders are shipped on any given day, said Vigue. Paine has customers all over Europe, Canada and the United States. “Anywhere north of the snow line,” he said. 

Retailers ranging from L.L. Bean and the U.S. National Park Service to gift shops along the coast of Maine sell Paine products. “It’s the small gift shops that keep us going,” said Loomis.

The company also makes pinion pine and red cedar incense and sells a host of other products, which are also available on the Web at paineproducts.com.