Freshpet Posts Best Topline Growth Since 2014 IPO

Pet food maker Freshpet recorded its best growth in eight years during the close of 2022.

The New Jersey-based company, which makes refrigerated dog and cat food, announced Monday (Feb. 27) that its sales had jumped 43% in the last quarter of the year thanks in part to improved distribution capabilities.

Freshpet CEO Billy Cyr said the company had spent the quarter improving its quality and logistics, while also launching a new kitchen in Ennis, Texas.

“With the Ennis Kitchen now on-line, we finally have enough capacity to meet the growing demand for Freshpet,” Cyr said in a news release.

“That will enable us to focus on driving our operational improvements and margin enhancement under our Fresh Future plan while finally having the ability to fully leverage our marketing, innovation, and distribution capabilities.”

Last year, Cyr had said the company was “experimenting with a variety of new production technologies,” some of which supported its existing products and others that would allow for new innovations.

Freshpet, which went public in 2014, said it expects net sales for 2023 to be around $750 million, a roughly 26% increase from 2022. Net sales rose 39% between 2021 and last year.

This is happening at a time when pets “have moved from the outside doghouse to inside the human house to hopping up on the bed,” as PYMNTS wrote recently.

That means that the old-school pet owner model has been rapidly replaced with a “pets are people too” mindset that’s appearing in retail and veterinary omnichannel innovations.

“As the relationship between people and their pets continues to evolve, we are constantly focused on customer feedback, understanding trends, understanding what consumers are looking for, and really staying forward in terms of innovation and design and features,” Petco Senior Vice President, Omnichannel Experience Jenny Wolski told PYMNTS’ Karen Webster.

Petco CEO Ron Coughlin said during an earnings call late last year that his company was now a “pet platform company” with 1,500 stores and a total active customer base of more than 25 million pet parents.

Wolski expanded on that, saying, “We have such rich customer data, we have a world-class enterprise data and analytics team, and we have a truly one-of-a-kind ecosystem. When we think about continuously building onto the ecosystem and the platform, we’re looking for partners who help fill a need in the pet space” that are also top dogs in their respective fields.

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