Around the time Schafer Bungay graduated from the University of Montana in May, National Park vendor Pursuit placed an order of 96 bottles of his new fragrance line inspired by locations around Montana.  

In June, the company requested a reorder of 700 bottles.  

"The response from the market has been incredible. There are now 15 stores carrying the fragrances across the state and in every single one of those stores they're selling really well. So, it's created this good problem of how do I keep up?” Bungay said.  

Born and raised in Kalispell, Bungay said Montana Fragrance Co. draws from the many iconic places around his home in Northwest Montana — an idea embraced by local merchants and their customers who have quickly bought up bottles from store shelves.  

There are currently 13 fragrances, with five in his Flathead collection and four each in his Glacier and Yellowstone collections. There’s about an equal split when it comes to perfumes for women and colognes for men, like Going-to-the-Sun Road for women and Avalanche for men.  

Inspired by a bottle of Clark Fork Rye Whiskey from Glacier Distillery, Bungay decided to put a photo of the fragrance’s namesake as the background of the large, rectangular glass bottle.  

In many ways, he said it makes a great keepsake for people who are visiting the area.  

“These places make us feel alive and connected to nature. So, if I can help people remember that feeling, that's what I'm going for. When they walk into a gift shop, instead of being left with non-experiential items like a hat or a T-shirt, they have a fragrance that every time they spray it, they can go back to those feelings of being in the park,” Bungay said.  

Selling a product that brings people back to pleasant memories in Montana was his pitch for the university’s John Ruffatto Startup Challenge. He took first place in the competition, described by UM as a contest for “Montana’s brightest and boldest students to present exciting new entrepreneurial ideas for adjudication.” 

Bungay said officials told him it was the most competitive year they’ve seen yet. Second place went to Novara Sensing Corp., a start-up specializing in drone threat detection technology and third place went to Macro-light, which develops highly effective, shelf-stable, and portable antibiotic products such as pills, creams and sprays.  

Judges also awarded Bungay with the Traction Award, in addition to his first place win. He said many recognizable Montana companies like Big Sky Brewing and Five on Black in Missoula have won the competition in the past, so it’s an honor he doesn’t take lightly.  

“Different people were coming up to me and saying ‘You’re going to need manufacturing, let me know when you need that,’ and ‘Hey you’re going to need fulfillment.’ I built this myself, so every time I get validation like that, it’s just really cool,” Bungay said.  

Bungay started his journey into making fragrances as a broke college kid with a special interest. He owned over 50 fragrances at the time, but knew he couldn’t buy many of the colognes he was interested in.  

“I start looking into how to perfume and how to make your own fragrances and figured it out. I started mixing stuff in the basement of my college house, asking my roommates ‘how does this one smell? What do you think of this one?’ And next thing I know, people are buying them from me,” Bungay said.  

His sister owns a candle company, so he started asking her more about how she operated the business. As a marketing major at the time, he was formulating how he wanted to brand this new hobby into a legitimate business venture.  

As a fifth-generation Montanan, he thought it would be a good idea to draw inspiration from the nature around him. The fragrances are not a one-to-one recreation of how they smell, but instead how it feels to be there, like the ruggedness of Logan Pass in Glacier Park or a summer day on Flathead Lake.  

“This fragrance captures the golden glow of a sunset reflecting across the water on Flathead Lake — it's bright, citrusy with some soft florals. So, it’s the vibe these places give off and how they make us feel, and I do my best to capture that in a fragrance that evokes the same feelings,” Bungay said.  

Though Bungay started making fragrances last summer, he said it didn’t become serious until he started networking with the right people at UM. He met former Nike Chief Operating Officer Eric Sprunk there and told him about the business idea, which he was impressed by. He would go on to make custom fragrances for Sprunk once the business got up and running.  

He also got into some entrepreneurial groups at the university with the help of Erik Guzik, who helps oversee the entrepreneurship program. During this time, he refined the concept of the fragrance company over and over until he got into local stores.  

It started out with Whitefish Gift and Gear, which sold 25 bottles over two weeks in February. Afterward, he expanded to Sportsman and Ski Haus, Sage and Cedar and MOD Hive, as well as locations owned by Lincoln Stores, like the Huckleberry Patch and the St. Regis Travel Center.  

He later landed spots at Scheels in Missoula and Heyday, a local store in Bozeman.  

“When I got into Scheels, they sent a picture of the bottles on display. I was already heading back home [to his college house in Missoula] which wasn’t far from the store. I walked into the store and saw them on display next to the Dr. Squatch and all that stuff. To see my product there, it was just really cool,” Bungay said.  

Bungay originally started his perfumery journey on his kitchen table at his college house, which didn’t last long — his roommates encouraged him to move the operation to the basement. Back in Kalispell this summer, he’s been making the fragrances in his parents’ garage. But he recently made the decision to rent out office space for his budding business.  

“I'm probably going to need a larger office pretty soon, or like a shop space,” he said.  

These days, he’s spending his time fulfilling orders. He’s already very busy but still looking toward the future — there are other markets to break into, like Billings, Great Falls and Helena, as well as in Wyoming, like near Yellowstone.  

He is scaling so fast that he anticipates partnering with a manufacturer soon, so he can focus on creating new fragrances again, rather than just producing bottles and making deliveries.  

But Bungay remains excited about his success, even looking toward ways to market the brand across the U.S.  

“When I pitched this at Ruffato, I said this has potential as a national concept. I can decide to rebrand again under a company that has more [wide appeal] like if I go down to California and I want to make a Yosemite fragrance,” Bungay said. “But for now, I just want to focus on Montana. That’s where I’m from and what I love.”  

Learn more about Montana Fragrance Co. at montanafragranceco.com. 

Reporter Taylor Inman can be reached at 406-758-4440 or [email protected]. If you value local journalism, pledge your support at dailyinterlake.com/support. 

    Montana Fragrance Company products on display at Sportsman & Ski Haus in Kalispell on Tuesday, Aug. 4. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider