This article was published in the November 2024 issue of Pet Food Processing. Read it and other articles from this issue in our November digital edition.
Celebrating 30 years in business this year, Garmon Corp. and its flagship NaturVet brand are on a mission to bring more pet parents into the supplement space. With health and wellness as a priority, innovation as an emphasis and consumer insights growing in significance, the pet wellness company is poised for growth in its 31st year, and beyond.
Soft chews are the No. 1 volume driver across all formats for Garmon Corp.
|Company founder, Scott Garmon, started working in the pet care industry in 1979, opening his Creature Comforts pet store in Fallbrook, Calif. But it was in 1994 that Garmon Corp. and the NaturVet brand were born. Like many in the industry, the impetus to build a brand came from the quest to help a family pet — in this case, the family’s rescue Labrador Winston who suffered from arthritis and hip dysplasia. With the help of holistic veterinarian Pedro Rivera, Garmon developed a natural joint formula that gave Winston a new lease on life, and gave Scott Garmon a new career objective — to create pet supplements that “ensure the superior quality of life that all pets deserve.”
The company originally entered the market segment manufacturing powders and tablets and later added liquids to the lineup in 2000. NaturVet started selling soft chews in 2008, and by 2017 was opening its second soft chew facility in Temecula, Calif.
With 650 SKUs available — over 250 under the NaturVet brand — Garmon Corp. produces more than 12 million finished goods per year as a contract, private label and branded manufacturer. Today, the NaturVet brand makes up the largest portion of the company’s production volume.
A second soft chew manufacturing site, featuring three production lines, was added in 2018. Today, soft chews are the No. 1 volume driver across all formats in the company’s portfolio.
In 2022, Garmon Corp., which employs around 166 people, was acquired by Sweden-based pet healthcare company Swedencare for $447.5 million.
“Through the acquisition, we get a broad, well-known and appreciated product portfolio, a high-quality product facility that can be considered a leader in soft chews, and fantastic customer coverage in the United States,” said Håkan Lagerberg, chief executive officer of Swedencare, at the time of the acquisition.
Swedencare owns 10 subsidiaries in the United States, Garmon Corp. being the largest across the globe with one-third of the company’s total product volume.
“Our key differentiators are being a thought leader, leading in innovation and becoming a best-in-class marketing operation,” said Geoff Granger of Garmon Corp.
Early in 2024, Garmon Corp. expanded its leadership team appointing pet industry veteran Geoff Granger to the role of CEO. Bringing more than 30 years of retail experience to the job, more than a decade of which was serving in leadership roles at Petco, Granger and his team, including Chief Commercial Officer Phil Bramel, Chief Operations Officer Denora Cessna, Director of Manufacturing Jeff Skinner, Customer Marketing Director Andrea Bouwman and Executive Director of Product Development Procurement Marcel Lewis, are working to bring more pet parents into the pet health supplements category.
“Our key differentiators are being a thought leader, leading in innovation and becoming a best-in-class marketing operation,” Granger said.
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Expanding operations
Garmon Corp.’s production, warehousing and office space spans 165,000 square feet across three sites in Temecula. Manufacturing for the company’s soft chews, powders, tablets and liquids takes place in the company’s two production plants, just a little more than one mile away from each other.
The company’s Remington soft chews plant was built in 2006 and occupied by Garmon in 2017. With more than 70,000 square feet on site, around 32,285 square feet make up the plant’s three processing and packaging areas. The remaining 32,637 square feet is used as warehouse space and 5,278 square feet is left for office use.
The company’s Via plant, producing its portfolio of liquids, powders and tablets, contains around 10,700 square feet of manufacturing and packaging area for its five production lines in the 44,500-square-foot facility. The plant was built from the ground-up for Garmon in 2006.
The company also has a 48,000-square-foot warehouse and office building in Temecula, which it has occupied since 2021. Production in the Remington and Via plants runs five days a week on two shifts per day.
When the Remington plant came online in 2017, all soft chew production was moved to that facility. With most of the company’s production focused on soft chews, both for NaturVet branded products and for private-label customers, the Remington soft chews facility is set up for continued growth for both current and future customers.
Employees working in the production plants rotate jobs every one to two hours to alleviate repetitive stress injuries.
|Remington features three production lines — the larger one containing a 4,000-kg mixer, and the other two housing 2,000-kg mixers. Premix ingredients for the formulation being produced are added to each mixer before liquid ingredients are incorporated. The “dough” is moved along a conveyor and passes through the first of two metal detectors before proceeding through the extruder. The larger production line features two separate shape extruders, while the smaller lines only offer one shape per production run. After forming into shapes, the soft chews run through a hopper to incorporate flavor additions to the exterior of the chew. Next, they are conveyed into a neighboring room to be weighed and sorted.
Depending on the production line, the chews are filled into jars, cups or bags and then checkweighed. Because of its faster speed and higher capacity, the larger line only runs jars. After being filled into containers, the product passes through a second metal detector before lids are added to jars and cups and bags are sealed. Finally, product is labeled, as well as marked with lot numbers and best-buy dates.
“Quality is our No. 1 priority here,” Cessna said. “We do a quality check once an hour while the lines are running.”
Products are hand-packed into boxes before being sealed and coded for shipping. All product is held in production for final quality checks before being shipped directly to customers or moved to the warehouse.
Production teams are cross trained to work in various areas of the plant to help reduce fatigue and repetitive stress injuries on the job. Most operators change tasks every couple of hours. Sanitation, including washing and swabbing all equipment and tools, is performed by all operators after each production run. The company proudly boasts a 30-year track record without a single product recall.
The Via plant is responsible for manufacturing the company’s liquids, powders and tablets, which is a smaller portion of the company’s production volume. Half of the facility is dedicated to producing powders, some of which are pressed into a tablet form. Operators on the other side of the building produce the liquid products out of two kettles. Employees in the Via facility rotate jobs more frequently because tasks are more manual and repetitive at this plant.
Plastic jars are used for packaging soft chews in the Remington plant, and powders and tablets in the Via facility, both located in Temecula.
|Approximately 262 items are manufactured out of the company’s two facilities — 146 for dogs, 88 for both dogs and cats, and 28 for cats only.
“We continue to see growth in everything cat,” Bramel said. “So, we’re continuing to investigate that segment.”
Category leader
With a long history of innovation and “first-to-market” products, Garmon Corp./NaturVet is recognized as a leader in the supplements segment. But being known in the industry is just part of the story, reaching consumers is the goal.
“It’s all about bringing people into the category,” Granger said. “We’re talking about a category that has under 20% penetration on the pet side — in the human space, there’s 80% penetration of supplement usage. Why are people being proactive for their own health, but reactive for their pets?”
When it comes to pet health, pet parents often treat an existing symptom or condition — their dog is having a hard time jumping in and out of the car or up on the bed, so they look for a hip and joint supplement — rather than looking for products to help prevent conditions from occurring in the first place.
“We, as humans, take a supplement to fend off something down the road, but when we treat our pet, it’s to treat something that we’ve observed,” Bramel said. “We need to communicate the message that ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.’
“We want to make people smarter about a category that’s so overtly confusing,” said Phil Bramel of Garmon Corp.
“We want consumers to be smarter about their pet’s health and wellness, and we want to help educate them in that,” he added. “We want to make people smarter about a category that’s so overtly confusing.”
Two recent NaturVet products — Scoopables and Breed Specific — were designed to aid in the ongoing challenge of bringing more pet parents into the pet health supplement category in a proactive rather than reactive way.
NaturVet’s Scoopables line was introduced in May 2023. Inspired by the growing number of toppers on the market, the portfolio consists of nine varieties of bite-sized soft chew supplements for dogs and four varieties for cats targeting allergies, anxiety, digestion, joint health and more.
“Toppers have been big for the last five to 10 years. They have a lot of functional benefits, but I challenge you to look at the ingredients,” Granger said. “Toppers aren’t going to be as efficacious as a true supplement would be. So, we created Scoopables to deliver a more efficacious option while offering a more engaging experience than a typical supplement.”
In addition to its digestive support, skin and coat, joint health, calming aid, stool and bowel health, and allergy care options, the Scoopables line for dogs includes an All-in-One variety that features skin and coat, joint support, digestive enzymes, vitamins and minerals all in one product in a hickory smoked bacon flavor.
After wet and dry ingredients are combined in the mixer, the dough is conveyed into the former to be extruded into soft chew shapes.
|The Scoopables soft chews can be hand-served or added to the pet’s bowl in a similar manner to a food topper. However, because the product is considered a supplement and not a food, the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) standards does not allow it to be labeled as a topper. Garmon and NaturVet products are certified by the National Animal Supplement Council (NASC) and the facilities are annually audited by NASC and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
NaturVet’s Breed Specific soft chews for dogs hit the market in March 2024, with an introduction at Global Pet Expo. Also designed to ease pet parents into the category, the product offers five varieties formulated with ingredients to support challenges and issues common in different canine breeds. The five breed specifications include Toy & Small, Bully, Sport & Working, Doodle and Giant breeds.
Each product homes in on specific health needs for the various breeds. While most of the varieties include ingredients to support joint, heart, gut and dental health, the Toy & Small Breed variety, for instance, also adds trachea and anxiety supporting ingredients. Other breed specific benefits include anti-aging ingredients in the Giant Breeds variety and muscle development and eye health components in the Bully Breeds formulation.
Breed Specific is a daily solution for pet parents — an easy entry into the category,” said Geoff Granger of Garmon Corp.
“If you go into the supplement space, there’s a lot going on. Breed Specific is a daily solution for pet parents — an easy entry into the category,” Granger said. “And we made it easy by separating it into breeds — pet parents just look for their dog’s face on the bag.”
The Breed Specific products, as well as other dental-focused soft chews, feature ProDen PlaqueOff®, made from kelp that is sustainably harvested from the Scandinavian coastline. The ingredient works with the pet’s saliva to prevent food and debris from adhering to teeth. The propriety PlaqueOff® ingredient was introduced into the NaturVet portfolio following the Swedencare acquisition.
“Dental health and dental treats are one of the fastest growing segments of the business,” Bramel said. “Consumers are starting to understand that dental health is an important part of total animal health.”
Customers and consumers
With the majority of its business being under the NaturVet brand, Garmon Corp. tries to offer all of its branded, private label and contract manufacturing customers plenty of product options and plenty of innovation.
Garmon Corp.’s two production facilities in Temecula, Calif., also feature on-site warehouse space.
| Source: L'EVEIL DE SOI LLC“We have a two-pronged strategy to grow both our NaturVet business and our private label side,” Bramel said. “It’s a great space to play in and there’s a lot of opportunity to grow both sides of the business concurrently.
“We want to move our private label business away from being transactional to being more strategic,” he continued. “There’s the opportunity to duplicate in private label, but there’s also the opportunity to innovate.”
Granger added, “Historically it was kind of turnkey. Customers would ask for a product to fulfill a need, and we would respond with, ‘we have a formula that can do that.’ But now, we’re talking about NaturVet innovation. We’re talking about private label innovation.”
The Remington plant features an R&D test lab where Lewis and his development team create new formulations for the brand and private-label customers. The small pilot lab provides the necessary space and opportunity to create small batches of products for existing and potential customers. Trial and error and formulation development allow customers to get exactly what they’re looking for before products are produced on a larger scale.
“We can build a new product from scratch or we can use a customer’s formula,” Lewis said. “We can also work hand-in-hand with the customers to create something new.”
Garmon Corp. manufacturers more than 250 SKUs under its flagship NaturVet brand.
| Source: L'EVEIL DE SOI LLCOn the NaturVet side, fulfilling the needs of the consumer means gaining a better understanding of that consumer. To help with this mission, Garmon is putting time, effort and money into data analytics, examining who these consumers are and where they are shopping. Part of this effort includes leveraging industry influencers and brand ambassadors to help communicate the benefits of NaturVet products to pet parents. Social media campaigns on Facebook and Tik-Tok are helping the brand connect and educate consumers.
“Who are the voices of authority in the consumers mind? In the past it was the vet,” Bramel said. “Vets still remain strong voices of authority, but now digital native millennials are seeking information from different sources. Whether it’s Amazon content or Chewy health and wellness advisors, those people are now the voices of truth that we need to invest in. We need to equip CSRs (customer service representatives) at Chewy, and at PetMeds, to be able to communicate our products’ features and benefits. We want to help people make better decisions.
“At the end of the day, it’s all meaningless if consumers don’t understand the features, the benefits and the applications of our products,” Bramel concluded.
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