Blog Posts Growing Pet Food Company Finds Scalable Fulfillment
A growing omni-channel business depends on an agile supply chain. As customer demand for its “human-grade” pet food increased, The Honest Kitchen recognized the need for a more sophisticated fulfillment and logistics solution.
Vice President of Operations Jake Fuller recently shared the company’s recipe for an effective supply chain with Logistics Management. Key ingredients? A strategic distribution network, robust systems, scalable resources and a trusted 3PL partner.
Following is an excerpt from the article…
Managing a Supply Chain through Omni-Channel Growth
For the last 16 years, The Honest Kitchen has been making exceptional, human-grade foods for pets. Based in San Diego, CA, the company has slowly expanded from a focus on dehydrated products and built its national brand around pet foods that range from meals to supplements to broths, all of which are made in the USA.
Through this growth process, The Honest Kitchen has had to rethink its logistics network and how it gets its products to distributors, retailers and end customers. “Our supply chain has grown more and more complex as time goes on,” says VP of operations Jake Fuller.
With a single manufacturing point for its expanding product line, and a dual distribution strategy utilizing Saddle Creek Logistics Services’ distribution centers in Joliet, Ill., and San Diego, the company sells primarily through independent pet stores.
“We’re currently in about 5,000 independent stores around the country,” says Fuller, “including Pet Supplies Plus and Hollywood Feed.” The manufacturer also sells through e-commerce outlets like Amazon and Chewy, plus its own website. The latter requires a lot of small parcel shipments that The Honest Kitchen works with Saddle Creek to orchestrate on a daily basis.
By outsourcing logistics and fulfillment to a reliable partner, The Honest Kitchen can effectively manage the “peaks and valleys” of those various sales channels, each of which has its own set of requirements. “That helps us save on labor, storage, and transportation,” says Fuller. “Their systems also decrease transit times to our customers, which is really important when you’re trying to compete with the likes of other online retailers that are providing two-day shipping or less.”
To learn more about how Saddle Creek is helping The Honest Kitchen to manage through omnichannel growth, read the full article on page 10 of the digital edition.