the interview Nate Kredich

President, Himalayan Pet Supply

Nate Kredich is the current President of Himalayan Pet Supply. Kredich has more than 20 years of experience in manufacturing, product innovation, sales, logistics, and business development spanning various industries including pet care, construction, retail and technology. He holds an MBA in Finance from University of Virginia.

You have a rich career history, what first drew you to this industry?

Well first, I’m a huge dog lover, so the idea of working in this industry has always been thrilling to me. Much of my career has been spent helping scrappy, entrepreneurial businesses grow and scale, and there are plenty of these types of opportunities in the pet space. I’ve also always been attracted to ‘better for you’ pet brands, companies that are committed to providing options that are demonstrably better: for the pet, for their owners, and even for the planet. I’ve been fortunate to work with several companies that fulfilled this commitment and am eager to continue this with my new role at Himalayan within Primal Pet Group portfolio.

You have years of experience in the feed manufacturing industry, what are some of the major developments you’ve noticed along the way?

In recent years, manufacturers have been looking for ways to make food and treats that are less processed and have a more simplified ingredient panel. This focus is consumer-driven — today’s pet parents view their pet as a member of the family, so they care deeply about what’s going into the food and treats they are selecting for their dog or cat. Like when shopping for their own food, pet parents are willing to pay more for products that are less processed, made with fresh foods and feature specific ingredients that offer a functional benefit. They’re also educated about specific ingredients they don’t want in their pet’s food such as gluten, corn, soy, or wheat. ‘Clean ingredient labels’ have forced manufacturers, and their suppliers, to think about every ingredient on the label to make sure it delivers value to the pet.

What do you believe are some issues that the industry currently faces and how would you address them?

First, it’s clear that consumers that are looking for ‘cleaner products’ for their pets are often confused by what goes on the label. It is difficult to discern which products are truly minimally processed, particularly those derived from animals (e.g., rawhide). Himalayan addresses this by producing products with incredibly clean ingredient labels: for example, our cheese chews are generally made of only milk, salt, and citrus juice (preservative). Of note, The Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) recently announced a change to ingredient labels for pet food, which should help clear up this confusion.

Second, with so many options for pet food and treats on the market today, it can be challenging to cut through the clutter and differentiate a product. Himalayan introduced the original hard cheese chew and have seen a lot of companies try to follow our lead and try to make a similar product. We’ve always been focused on producing the highest quality cheese chews for dogs that meet the strictest standards for quality and safety; as such, our supply chain across Nepal and Washington state has always been a differentiator that is hard to replicate. Additionally, we try to differentiate our business with our mission to drive positive social change for women and children back in Nepal; we continue to use proceeds from The Original Himalayan Dog Chew to help build libraries, donate books, and provide scholarships to increase access to education.

Finally, there’s always a need for increased scientific research on the digestibility and nutritional benefits of the food and treats we are feeding our pets. At Himalayan, we’ve partnered with the Biosystem & Agricultural Engineering laboratory at Oklahoma State University to better understand how long it would take for a dog to digest one of our chews. Unlike traditional rawhide chews, our products are easy for a dog to digest.

What are the sustainability-based solutions that Himalayan Pet supply offers?

If you were to walk through our 120,000 square foot facility in Arlington, Washington, you would see that we strive to be a no-waste manufacturer. By grinding our waste into cheese powder, we are able to process nearly every ounce of scrap for use in a new product. We also work with our partners in Nepal to bring modern processing and production technologies to their operations so that they can also reduce the waste in their dairy operations.

Where do you believe the pet food industry will be in the next 10 years?

Most projections show that the U.S. pet industry will continue growing five or six percent per year until at least 2030. While ingredient traceability is certainly on many manufacturers’ minds, we aren’t certain how important this is to the U.S. consumer when they are making a purchasing decision. If suppliers can make it easier for manufacturers and consumers to understand the benefits of the ingredients they produce, it will likely fuel this movement even further. Finally, I think the direction of cultured meats is something that is worth keeping an eye on. Obviously, this would be massively disruptive to the current supply chain for the industry. It’s clearly not technology available yet at scale, but there’s a lot of smart people and capital chasing this idea, so it will be interesting to see how the industry reacts to future technological breakthroughs.

What in your opinion is the worst impact the pandemic had on the pet food industry?

The pandemic led to the closures of many small businesses, and the neighborhood pet market wasn’t immune to this. Primal and Himalayan are huge supporters of the independent pet channel, so it has been hard to see so many of them close their doors. Ultimately, it also forced today’s neighborhood retailers to become more efficient and embrace ‘lower touch’ merchandising such as delivery or BOPUS (“buy online, pick up in store”), or to offer services that cannot be replicated by online competitors. I think the pet retail environment is healthy again, and the retailers that weathered through COVID are better equipped to compete for today’s omnichannel consumer.