The father is a charmingly eccentric, old-school prairie lawyer who enjoys reminiscing about his bird-hunting trips alongside ex-prime minister John Diefenbaker.

The son is a main-chance marketer who once wangled a job waiting tables at Calgary’s Petroleum Club so he could bulk up on business contacts.

And in 10 years, 67-year-old Bill Tufts and his son, Robert, have elbowed their way into the crowded North American industrial and household cleanser market in a big way. Last year, they tabulated sales of $6 million in the U.S. and Canada, with nowhere to go but up.

The product: Orange TKO, an all-purpose organic cleaning fluid ferocious enough to scour gunk from the inside of a Budweiser beer vat, yet gentle enough to restore highlights to the fur of a Pomeranian dog.

“Benzine or chlorine-based cleaners burn off stains. Orange TKO relies on molecular action. We don’t do it, it’s nature, that’s all,” said the effusive senior member of Team Tufts.

Mike Sturk photos, Business Edge
Orange TKO president Bill Tufts credits nature for success.

If Bill sounds like an itinerant snake-oil vendor from the W.S. Walcott Medicine Show, well . . . you’re right, he does.

Nevertheless, this 100-per-cent natural, certified organic concentrate has become the Grateful Dead of cleaning fluids. Orange TKO has acquired a fiercely loyal international fan base of cultish proportions. Ecstatic testimonials pour in to Calgary head office from the Gulf Coast to the Bay of Fundy.

City of Vancouver road crews use it to eliminate excess tar. Kentucky horse breeders use it to polish horses’ hooves. Victoria’s Butchart Gardens uses it to discourage aphids.

One California woman sang the praises of Team Tufts after a wayward skunk entered her house via the kitty door. She added Orange TKO to her bathwater.

Meanwhile, the artisan who fashioned 56 pairs of cowboy boots for the first President Bush, another 25 for Dubya, several more for Bill Clinton, plus one $40,000 diamond-studded pair for Liz Taylor, swears by “that orange stuff” as a leather restorative and mildew preventive.



Legendary Houston bootmaker Rocky Carroll, proprietor of RJ’s Boots, was on the blower to Bill Tufts just the other day, wondering where to buy more. “Best stuff I ever used,” Carroll cheerfully confirmed in a follow-up chat with the Edge. “A miracle cleaner with the best smell in the world. Everything smells like oranges.”

And there’s your miracle ingredient: Orange peels.

If you can use tomatoes as a sunblock, marmalade as a cancer antidote (don’t try this at home) or prunes to fight wrinkles, why not orange peels to eliminate lice, scrub toilets, restore fine woods, wash roses, eat odours or remove rust?

Orange TKO’s active ingredient is D-limonene, a natural chemical found in high concentrations in oranges and other citrus fruits.

“What we do is, press the peel to get d-limonene,” explained Tufts Sr. “Then we distill it twice: once to get rid of excess oils and twice to purge excess acidity, to attain a neutral pH factor,” added Bill, who makes frequent trips to the company’s manufacturing facility in Denver.

Other commercial cleaners have exploited the remarkable versatility of d-limonene. But, saids Tufts, they always added non-organic chemicals.

“Our stuff is not only non-carcinogenic, it’s completely non-toxic and contains valuable nutrients,” he continued, waving copious documentation. Bill Tufts collects testimonials the way Ms. Taylor collected husbands.

He said Orange TKO has been praised by everyone from horticulturalist Howard (Dirt Doctor) Garrett to Jim Grassi, of Let’s Go Fishing Ministries.

He’s a Hemingway buff who comes on like a carnival pitchman. He wears ballcaps to the office and rarely stops talking.

But Tufts got his start as a Regina lawyer who specialized in environmental and development issues. At one point, his interest in conservation led him to the presidency of the Canadian Water Resource Association, a resource-management group.

The son of a Saskatchewan physician, Tufts stumbled onto the positive properties of d-limonene during the course of his legal work. Ultimately, he purchased marketing rights to the product that evolved into Orange TKO.

Tufts took his orange-peel treasure to McMaster University labs, where chemists eliminated the non-organic chemicals inherent in the original formula. At the time, Robert was running aproperty-management business in Edmonton. When his dad called, he started from scratch, selling Orange TKO to city restaurants and bowling alleys.

Since then, the Team Tufts marketing plan has won the brand loyalty of converts throughout the U.S. and Canada.

“Aw, this stuff sells itself,” grinned the old-school prairie lawyer, tugging the bill of his ballcap.

(Tom Keyser can be reached at tomk@businessedge.ca)