Blog Posts Expanding Product Lines for The Honest Kitchen
Key Takeaways
- Saddle Creek Logistics has handled order fulfillment for The Honest Kitchen for the past 17 years.
- Recently, the 3PL helped the pet food company to develop a new product offering.
- Three-flavor variety packs are a hit with ecommerce customers.
Back in 2006, growth in order volume outpaced The Honest Kitchen’s in-house fulfillment capabilities. That’s when the pet food company first began partnering with Saddle Creek Logistics Services. Over the years, the two nimble and entrepreneurial companies have grown together.
Today, The Honest Kitchen offers nearly 80 product options from its line of all-natural, human-grade food for dogs and cats. The company sells through about 5,000 independent pet stores around the country and e-commerce outlets like Amazon and Chewy as well as its own website.
Saddle Creek fulfills the pet food company’s orders from distribution centers in Joliet, Ill.; San Diego and Buena Park, Calif., Las Vegas, Nev.; and Lexington, Ky.
As Inbound Logistics chronicled, Saddle Creek helped The Honest Kitchen fill a surge in orders during the pandemic. The time-tested partnership has also enabled the pet-food company to explore new avenues for growth.
The Saddle Creek team is a natural extension of our business.”
– Joey Smits, Director of Inventory Management and Logistics, The Honest Kitchen
Saddle Creek Adds Value for Pet Food Company
Following is an excerpt from the Inbound Logistics article…
In recent months, Saddle Creek and The Honest Kitchen have been collaborating on various projects, including building variety packs for the pet food brand’s new Pour Overs, Butcher Block Pates, and One Pot Stews.
For instance, the 5.5-ounce Pour Overs, known as “toppers,” are sold in cases of 12. When The Honest Kitchen began thinking about how to let customers sample the three different protein flavors before committing to a case, it discussed options with the 3PL. Saddle Creek now bundles the product into three-flavor variety packs for ecommerce.
“We started by telling Saddle Creek that we don’t know how much product we need, and we don’t know how well it will be received, but we need your help,” says Jake Fuller, Chief Supply Chain Officer at The Honest Kitchen.
Saddle Creek assembled a small number of variety packs to start as the brand tested the idea. “Now we kit thousands monthly,” he adds.
Joey Smits, Director of Inventory Management and Logistics for The Honest Kitchen, sees the 3PL as an important part of the pet food company’s team. “The Saddle Creek team is a natural extension of our business,” he says.
To learn more, read the full article in Inbound Logistics.
Related to: Managing Growth, Multiple Sales Channels, Product Customization, Selling Online