Who We Are
Picture it: Mid/Late 1990s, Fairfield, Iowa
After a dozen prototypes, countless designs and packaging mockups, and tons of trial and error…
Jeffrey Smith and Monica Hadley brought the first 12-Volt Car Diffuser to the market and launched the Drive Time® Brand in May of 1997.
By February 1998, The Fairfield Ledger reported that, with combined efforts of Smith’s invention and Hadley’s marketing prowess, the original Drive Time® 12-Volt aromatherapy diffuser had already been sold to over 1,500 customers on the Home Shopping Network and was being sold in local Fairfield shops.
That idea would soon launch a global company…
(Image of article from February 23, 1998 edition of The Fairfield Ledger picturing Jeffrey smith (standing) and Monica Hadley (sitting) with the original Drive Time® System)
Fast Forward…
Now: Product Idea turned Global Corporation.
Excerpt from Meditating Entrepreneurs, Creating Success from the Stillness Within, “Monica Hadley, Transforming Ideas into Businesses,” Hal Goldstein, Meditating Press, Fairfield, Iowa 2019:
It was a tough go for years…“Every time we rounded the corner, we would hit another snag,” Hadley said. “But you can’t fail until you quit; we just never gave up.”
By the year 2000, the tides had changed for good. A corporate structure was in place, a new CEO and president joined the company and AERON Lifestyle Technology, Inc. officially relaunched. Smith’s invention eventually cracked open the door to a thriving national retailer who soon asked, “What else can you do”?
By 2020, with 100 staff and line workers, and six operations around the globe, AERON had become recognized as a world leader in the design, engineering, and manufacture of hundreds of white label and private-brand fragrance diffusion devices for globally recognized wholesale and retail chains.
(Image of Jeffrey Smith and Monica Hadley in 2020 with several AERON Lifestyle Technology, Inc. products. The company holds numerous patents for it’s product designs and engineering)
The Drive Time® brand now lives under the AERON umbrella along with its sister-brand, Belle Aroma®