The company, which makes clean-label freeze-dried pet food, treats and toppers, has completed a $75m expansion of its plant in Seward, Nebraska. This tripled the capacity of the facility providing an additional 70,000 sq. ft. of freeze-dried pet food ingredient manufacturing space. The facility offers all manufacturing steps together from recipe development to raw meat processing, freeze-drying, and packaging.
Chad Kucks, director of commercial operations at Scoular’s Petsource, told FeedNavigator that there is “high” demand from pet food manufacturers looking to expand and launch new products to market. While any upscale in production at the plant will be strategic, including working with the right partners, this additional production gap is now nearly filled, Kucks revealed.
“We know there’s a high amount of demand within the market, but we just don’t understand how big it is,” he said.
“Once we realized there was more demand and there were more brands that needed our help and expertise, we said we want to keep this freeze-dried category moving and create more opportunities.”
Petsource’s expansion is a critical part of its parent company’s larger strategic corporate growth plans.
“Scoular is very interested in adding capacity and capability to the pet food market as needed, whether that’s freeze-dried or some other product categories in the future,” he added.
Kucks said the increase in demand was impacted by the growing number of pet owners in North America who “exploded” after the Covid pandemic when people working at home wanted the company of a pet.
He said: “There has been a new dynamic change in how people feed their animals. What the industry is going through now is the humanization of pet food. There are many pet owners who want to feed their dogs more as well or better than they feed themselves or their own children.
Shelf-life
Freeze-dried is proving popular because it includes high-quality ingredients that maintain composition and nutritional values as well as having a long shelf life, Kucks explains. Petsource uses human-grade meat combined with fruit and vegetables blended to make a whole meal or a single-ingredient treat made from products such as beef liver or organ muscle.
“These things are obviously nutritious for the animal and far exceed what you would get in a kibble,” he said.
“The market is growing because there is a trend for higher quality ingredients.”
‘Food to go’ for pets
Kucks predicts more innovation in the pet food sector within packaging as he believes “food-to-go” for pets is set to be a growing trend.
“Having opportunities to feed treats and food on the go beyond the traditional bowl will be interesting innovations as people take their dogs with them wherever they go,” he predicted.
He also sees potential opportunity for freeze-dried products with plant-based and novel ingredients such as insects.
