We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Lisa McMillan a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Lisa, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today Alright, so you had your idea and then what happened? Can you walk us through the story of how you went from just an idea to executing on the idea

Once we decided to move forward with Remy’s Kitchen, I started cold calling anyone in the pet industry I could get contact info for. Many would not answer my calls but we connected with a lot of great people along the way. Talking with people in all aspects of the business helped solidify our plan to move forward with freeze dried treats to start. Freeze drying is a process that keeps most all of the nutrients in the raw food. I just happened to get in contact with a holistic veterinarian that also has a freeze drying facility and loved our treat ideas. I started cold calling people Oct 1 2016 and we officially launched Remy’s Kitchen online August 17 2017. In between that time we set up manufacturing, packaging, branding, warehousing, and spent quite a bit of money. The execution phase was definitely an adventure for sure.

Lisa, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

We are makers of super healthy freeze dried dog and cat treats. Our dog , Remy, was our inspiration for starting this company. When we adopted Remy from our local animal shelter, it wasn’t long before we noticed he was struggling with some common physical sensitivities that we felt might be improved with diet. After some trial and error, we determined that certain ingredients found in many dog foods were, in fact, aggravating his skin and digestive tract. I decided to start cooking for Remy to find a recipe that didn’t aggravate his sensitivities. The menu was simple: whole foods and 100% farm fresh raw meat designed to minimize allergens and maximize his health. When I fed him these foods, not only did he lick the bowl clean every time, he experienced a remarkable change in his quality of life. At the time when we set out to find foods that did not contain those ingredients, we came up empty handed. In addition, we discovered that most of the well known store-bought dog foods were packed full of unnecessary artificial preservatives, fillers and additives. This motivated us to start Remy’s Kitchen – a line of healthy, single sourced protein dog treats with limited ingredients. The pet food industry has changed so much since we started, we would have had no problem these days finding great limited ingredient diets. People are much more aware of ingredients and what they do not want to feed their pet and pet food brands are listening.

How do you keep in touch with clients and foster brand loyalty?

We started Remy’s Kitchen focusing on Instagram where Remy already had a great group of Insta friends. To this day I love to read every comment, message, to connect with people that purchase our product. Nothing makes me happier than hearing how their dog, cat, or ferret loves our product!

Do you sell on your site, or do you use a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc?

We started selling on our website with the goal of also getting into independent brick and mortar stores across the country and having Remy’s Kitchen be a household brand they could trust to treat their four legged friend. Five and a half years later we are in a few hundred stores across the country (and growing with new distribution partners) and selling through our site, Amazon, Chewy, Faire, and Baxter Boo.com We keep our retail pricing lower for the independent brick and mortar so they don’t have to feel they are competing with online pricing. Online is such a huge part of sales but you also want to encourage people going into their local independent pet stores to purchase your product.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.remysk9kitchen.com/
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/remysk9kitchen
• Facebook: https://www.Facebook.com/remysk9kitchen
• Twitter: https://www.twitter.com/remysk9kitchen

Image Credits
Krista Mason Photography