• Bloomberg, Thursday, November 11, 2010 10:38 AM

When I see the word Clorox, I think of a laundry basket filled with rank sweat socks, not more fragrant delicacies such as pizza dipped in salad dressing or trash bags that smell like vanilla. But it's the latter aromas that the consumer products company is pinning its hopes on for growth upon.

Clorox, which owns about 60 consumer brands including Glad bags, KC Masterpiece barbecue sauce and Hidden Valley Ranch salad dressing, has seen annual sales rise 10% for that last item as it has marketed it as a sauce for frozen-food items. "Here you have our most premium-priced product, growing more share than any of our products in a deep recession," CEO Don Knauss tells Ryan Flinn.

Sales for Glad bags rose, too, as the company added scents such as vanilla and lemon from Procter & Gamble's Febreze air-freshener brand and overlayed bags with a web of ForceFlex that prevents rips. "If Apple can sell $800 iPads in this economy, we ought to be able to figure out how to sell more bleach and more trash bags," Knauss says. "But it takes innovation to do it."

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