A Healthy Business

All Natural Pet

Owner: Pasha Cook
Location: Houston
Service: Retail pet food and products; home delivery service
Launch: November 2010
Launch Cost: $25,000
2011 Revenues: $30,000
2012 Projections: $100,000

Now: Balancing making sales from an online marketplace of natural pet food with educating owners on canine nutrition, All Natural Pet seeks to establish itself as the Houston-area expert on healthy food choices for dogs.

Next: All Natural Pet is working on its own line of natural grooming products, teaming with a chemist and an essential oils expert to develop the products.

Health and fitness have been a central focus for Pasha Cook most of her life, but it wasn’t until a few years ago that the 37-year-old former teacher realized how important wellness is for pets. Shortly after adopting her schnauzer, BJ, in 2009, Cook noticed his hair was falling out from the trauma of major surgery. It was then that a friend who worked for a pet food company introduced her to the idea of a natural diet for her canine. “I grew up where dogs ate what we ate,” says Cook. “So the concept of natural pet food was foreign to me.”

It didn’t take long before Cook was hooked. Changing what she was feeding BJ improved his health dramatically. Small changes to BJ’s diet inspired big changes in Cook’s life. After seeing how well he responded to pet food made with natural ingredients, Cook began to research the pet industry, specifically the health benefits of organic pet foods.

While other retail sectors struggled through the recession, the pet industry had a steady increase in overall sales from 2007 to 2011. Last year, U.S. pet food sales rose 4.5% to $19.2 billion, according to Packaged Facts. U.S. retail sales of natural pet products totaled $2.3 billion in 2011; that figure is expected to grow 12% in 2012. Internet sales for pet products accounted for $1.2 billion in 2011 and are projected to grow at a 12% compound annual rate through 2015.

Armed with information on opportunities in the pet food industry and ready to share her knowledge about healthy diets with other pet owners, Cook took $25,000 of her own money and started All Natural Pet in 2010. The Houston-based pet food delivery company operates mostly online.

Cook buys a variety of natural and organic dog food as well as grooming supplies and treats from wholesale vendors. Houstonians can get products online via the company’s mobile delivery service. Since Cook operates a virtual storefront, she can run the business from home without having to house large-scale inventory. She orders stock on a week-by-week basis.

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Cook says this business model made sense because not only did e-commerce eliminate the overhead costs of a brick-and-mortar operation, it made shopping more convenient for customers. “I hate to drive and I don’t like going to the grocery store,” says Cook. “I figured a lot of people out there feel the same way.” But it’s about more than convenience; Cook says having quality products is what makes her business stand out among other pet food retailers. “I wouldn’t put anything on the site that I wouldn’t feed my own dog.”

Cook originally thought it would be relatively easy to establish an e-commerce business, but developing the website and its functionality turned out to be one of her biggest challenges. She consistently ran into setbacks during the pre-launch phase, and just two weeks before the grand opening, she and her team of four employees were changing up the website–a process Cook calls stressful. Four months after the launch of the website, “we learned we weren’t Google-friendly because we had lots of images, but not a lot of text to help with SEO [search engine optimization],” Cook says. “So we had to hire someone to help change everything over.”

SEO is the process of improving the visibility of a website or Web page in search engines such as Google, Yahoo,

and Bing. How your online store is indexed in search engines is critical. It’s important for virtual storefront owners to make sure potential customers are able to find their site when they are searching for the services or products that you offer.

Cook says the company also faced resistance from potential customers who didn’t see the benefits of feeding organic foods to pets, or who believed natural products are too expensive. “If you can buy a 40-pound bag of regular food for $20, what do you think is in there? There are a lot of fillers and additives in those foods,” Cook says. “It’s like feeding candy to your baby.” She says there are plenty of natural pet foods that are affordable and high in quality, and to convey this point, she’s making it her mission to educate customers through her website and free pet care workshops held in the Houston area.

Cook is also educating her staff by teaming up with nutrition experts who provide accurate information that can be passed along to customers. “We want to teach people how animals can bring longevity into your life. If you’re bringing longevity into your pet’s life with proper nutrition, they can bring the same to you with exercise, love, and the care they give,” she says.

According to industry experts,

many pet food companies have already developed lines of natural foods under very strict guidelines. “In the United States, pet food is the most highly regulated food product after infant formula,” says Kurt Gallagher, communications director for the Washington, D.C.-based Pet Food Institute.

Financial resilience in this industry has been powered by owners’ tendencies to treat their pets like family members by offering more innovative, specialized, and premium products and services, reports IBISWorld. Retailers are cashing in on pet owners’ desires to pamper their pets. In addition, growth in pet ownership in the United States has led to higher demand for pet food and pet supplies overall.

All Natural Pet’s sales revenues reached $30,000 in 2011, but Cook is hopeful that sales for 2012 will climb to $100,000. The push now is to develop repeat customers through its subscription-based service that automatically has pet food redelivered to clients according to need. To further spread the word about the company’s products and delivery service, All Natural Pet joined forces with other local businesses. It recently partnered with Boneyard, a dog park and bar in Houston, to open The Treat Boutique, which offers all-natural and eco-friendly products for pets. Cook says she’s also established a working relationship with a local pet magazine, co-sponsoring events and contributing to its online blog.