Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with additional information from Stella & Chewy’s. See update notes below.
Stella & Chewy’s announced to its independent pet retail partners on Monday that its products will be available at Petco starting in January. Indies responded on social media with concerns about how it will be able to compete against the national chain. We reached out to the brand for more information and received this statement and subsequent updates.
Stella & Chewy’s announces a partnership with Petco Health and Wellness Company, Inc. (Nasdaq: WOOF) that will sell its raw and natural food products to Petco pet care centers, petco.com and the Petco app in January 2023. An advocate of healthy pet food since its founding in 2003, Stella & Chewy’s is the category leader in the raw pet food space, and this expansion helps ensure that more pet parents will have access to the benefits of raw feeding.
Stella & Chewy’s offers high-quality, raw and natural pet food made from premium, responsibly sourced ingredients. Its freeze-dried raw food offers complete and balanced raw meals enhanced with probiotics and antioxidants. The brand’s dry kibble, coated in freeze-dried raw, is available in grain-free and with-grain recipes. For those picky eaters, pet parents can also boost their pet’s bowl with nutrient-packed meal toppers.
“Today’s announcement is another step in a mission started almost 20 years ago – to make raw and natural diets more accessible to pet parents across the country,” said Marc Hill, CEO at Stella & Chewy’s. “But that mission isn’t possible without the ongoing partnership of our valued neighborhood pet stores – partnerships we will continue to invest in and support long term.”
- Stella & Chewy’s remains committed to the value of our trusted neighborhood pet store partners – partners that have been with the company since the beginning. Stella & Chewy’s understands the importance of providing the best value, range of products and resources to ensure their business succeeds.
- We believe together we are better – which is why we will never waiver in our support of neighborhood pet stores.
- We will continue to provide dedicated to those neighborhood relationships – providing resources including staff, education, product innovation and marketing that drives their business.
- For our trusted neighborhood partners, Stella & Chewy’s delivers:
- Exclusive product lines and recipes: We’ll continue to offer products exclusively to our neighborhood pet store partners, while continuing to introduce new products within the channel. UPDATE: Stella & Chewy’s will continue to give independent pet retailers exclusive access to more than 120 of the company’s most popular products. These include Stella & Chewy’s Raw Coated Baked Kibble, Raw Blend Baked Kibble and Frozen Raw products.
- Increased local marketing efforts focused on driving demand and traffic to neighborhood pet retailers: Customer programming efforts on things like freeze dried frequent buyer and puppy loyalty programming. UPDATE: These two programs are upcoming for Red Door Retailers.
- Dedicated advertising to drive awareness and purchase: In August 2022, Stella & Chewy’s helped further educate pet parents through the launch of a new national ad campaign called “All You Need Is Raw,” which embodies the raw, unfiltered love pet parents have for their pets and how food, especially raw and natural food, plays a key role in how pet parents can reciprocate their love.
- The omni-channel campaign includes cable TV, connected TV/video, audio, social media, experiential, custom content, mobile rich media, and influencer relations.
- Employee education programs and dedicated staff: Stella & Chewy’s invests in retailer education (School of Raw) and feeding programs, as well as resource our retailers with dedicated staff. UPDATE: Retailer education is an existing program named “School of Raw” and was upgraded last year next year and will continue to be invested in.
