More than 30 per cent of Canadian households own at least one dog.Simon Suy/Getty Images/iStockphoto
Dry, fly-away hair, malformed nails and repeated ear infections convinced Kim Good that a change in diet was needed. Not her own – her dog's.
The Carstairs, Alta., entrepreneur was worried about the long-haired Weimaraner she adopted in 2003. "His coat was very fly-away, he was chubby and he was not supposed to be; he had chronic ear infections, so that every three months or so he was on antibiotics, and the quick started popping out of his nails," she says.
The vet asked if she had ever considered feeding her dog raw food, Ms. Good recalls, "so I went out and bought buckets of raw chicken" – an option she ultimately couldn't sustain, partly because of the work involved and partly because of the "yuck" factor.
Then a relative suggested she try natural dog food made by Matt Fox, a rancher in Saskatchewan who founded a small pet-food company, Farm Fresh Pet Foods. He had developed a beef-based natural dog food recipe.
Mrs. Good's dog "went nuts" for the Farm Fresh food, and his health problems cleared up.
Her switch to natural foods for her dog mirrors a general shift in Canada. According to a July 2011 federal government report on trends in the pet-food industry, "pet humanization has evolved to the point where consumer preference for natural pet health-products and nutritional ingredients is growing.
"Pet owners are looking for natural ingredients to ensure their pets stay healthy. They want to see ingredients that are recognizable, and that are similar to what they themselves are eating."
There are more than five million dogs in Canada, the report says, with more than 30 per cent of Canadian households owning at least one. "Over the next few years, dog-food sales are projected to grow in constant value at a CAGR (compound annual growth rate) of 3 per cent, reaching $1.1-billion in sales by 2015," the report says.
Mr. Fox had been looking for an Alberta distributor for his dog food. Ms. Good's personal success with his product persuaded her to sign on in 2004, visiting small pet-stores in the Calgary area to persuade them to carry the product. Another sales representative, Nicole Porterfield, was hired to cover the Edmonton area.
By 2007, Mr. Fox had decided to focus on ranching and opted to get out of the pet-food business. Ms. Good and Ms. Porterfield bought the company and now operate it out of their homes as partners – Mrs. Good works from her ranch in Carstairs, where she and husband Lindsey raise beef and grain, while Ms. Porterfield works from her home in Edmonton.
Ms. Porterfield's husband Jason manages the Farm Fresh Pet Foods processing and distribution plant in nearby Bonaccord, Alta., where all the dog treats are made, and they partner with a meat processor in Rocky Mountain House who provides raw beef and bison.
Their range of products includes a line of cooked dog-food based on beef, and three lines of raw food, which are based on beef or bison. The cooked product is the soft, chewy sort, not kibble, Ms. Good says, and the raw food is shipped and sold frozen.
All are "whole ingredient products," meaning they combine protein, vegetables and vitamin sources to provide complete nutrition for a dog.
In terms of pricing, "we probably sit in the middle," Ms. Good says – that it, they are more costly than big-box store kibble but less expensive than the customized foods sold by veterinarians. And, in her case, once her dog's recurrent ear infections stopped and she no longer had to pay for vet bills and antibiotics, the difference in price was more than offset.
The bison products are particularly popular, she says, because of its high-protein, low-fat qualities and its rich flavour.
The partners plan to expand their bison offerings, and they're also looking at moving into lamb-based foods, although it poses a challenge because of higher cost.
Ms. Good says she has no interest in expanding to chicken-based dog food, as "there are a lot of companies that have chicken products [for dogs]on the market." Moreover, most chicken-based dog food involves grinding up the entire chicken, including the bones, and Farm Fresh doesn't put bone in its products – although they sell beef and bison bones either roasted or raw as treats.
Farm Fresh markets its products directly to small pet-food stores in select centres in B.C., Alberta, and Saskatchewan. "We would like to expand through Western Canada where our networks are, but it's a challenge," says Ms. Good, partly because of the need for refrigeration and partly because the stores that sell Farm Fresh products need to know their customers – and their dogs – well.
"Because of the nature of our foods, the stores need to do customer education," she says. Raw food is not for everyone, and some dogs have special dietary needs that Farm Fresh products may or may not address.
As for the feline market, the company has no plans to start making cat food. They're dog people. "I'm the only one in my company with a cat," laughs Ms. Good.
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