Hungry For Goodness: How One Pet Food Company Aims To Deliver More Than “Just” Quality Food

Canidae - pure goodness

How can pet food be a force for good? Growing up in the Midwest, Bret Furio attended St. Ignatius High School in Cleveland, a school with a stated mission to form leaders, scholars and ‘Men for Others’—the notion that we all share this planet with one another, and how we treat others matters. Furio has dedicated his life to living that philosophy, serving others throughout his life and career, and has instilled it into the culture and mission he’s shaping at Canidae Pet Food, a premium pet food company based in Stamford, Connecticut.

Furio says his journey to CEO at Canidae has been shaped by his past roles and experiences, stretching as far back as his time at St. Ignatius. At Gillette, he was given the chance to work and lead in various functions like Master Data, Sales and Marketing, an experience that Furio likens to getting an unofficial MBA, claiming it helped him to strengthen and round out his business acumen. From there, he led a global business team at Phillips, working with and navigating many diverse talents and cultures, an opportunity that helped him master the skill set of building consensus with leaders across the world. “Working in a global role, I really started to appreciate just how small the world is and how finite its resources are,” he says.

After Phillips, he held his first CEO position at Zarbee’s Naturals,a small, mission-based business where he was able to develop and cultivate a team to drive meaningful positive change in the category. They took all the best practices from the large multinational companies—like processes, quality and operational excellence—and combined them with an entrepreneurial mindset around being fast, agile and flexible. And every one of these experiences led him to where he is today.

Bret Furio, CEO of Canidae

As the CEO of Canidae, Furio and his team are building the company to utilize the best practices in CPG, but with an ownership mindset. They have completely overhauled the brand to remain small and agile, but with the mission to create a business that helps to change an industry for the better, enabling their employees to leave their “pawprints” on a more sustainable, better planet, while producing great pet food.

When it comes to sustainability, Furio says he wants to set a new standard for the Pet Food Industry. They are leading from their mission of creating a more sustainable world of goodness for pets, people and the planet, and are taking action by investing in innovation, ingredients and infrastructure. They are building a community of consumers, partners and advocates that align with and support their mission, and Furio says they are in it for the long-haul, tackling three key areas to start: Product, Packaging and Operational Practices.

Product: Canidae has made a significant investment in responsibly sourced and humanely raised proteins and regeneratively farmed ingredients. By the end of this year, over 50% of their farmed ingredients will come from Regenerative Farms, which is great for our pets and our planet.

Packaging: Canidae is on an ambitious mission to reduce use of single-use plastics by more than 80% in the next 8 years. They have made steps toward that mission with their introduction to sourcing the highest % PCR packaging that they can for their treats and dry dog food line, and they will be incorporating their PCR packaging across their lines over the next couple of years. They are also investing in innovative packaging that significantly reduces the amount of plastic used or eliminates it where feasible. Their newly-introduced Kibble Refill station is a perfect example of a necessary step toward eliminating single-use dog food bags.

Operations: They are investing heavily in reducing their carbon footprint, upcycling waste, and investing in green technology across operations. Canidae’s kibble is also proudly made in the USA, using ingredients that are primarily U.S. sourced. Their ingredients come directly from farmers via rail—cutting carbon emissions in the process, and making you feel better about what goes into your dog’s bowl.

When it comes to what the company is proud of, Furio notes a new initiative to keep 300 million pounds of pet food bags from ending up in landfills by 2030. His team recently partnered with Petco to create the first-of-its-kind Kibble Refill Station, the design and utility of which are patent pending. The test-stations are currently located in California and will be rolled out nationwide this year, with 100 locations expected to have stations up and running by June 2022.

The Kibble Refill Stations operate similar to bulk gravity-feed coffee bean or nuts systems in supermarkets and were created specifically for premium dog food. Pet parents can use a reusable zipper bag as part of a self-serve system, eliminating the need for single-use reinforced plastic—over 99% of which are disposed of in a landfill rather than recycled, according to Pet Sustainability Coalition.

Even better, consumers can expect to save up to 45% per pound on their purchases using the Kibble Refill Station, a stark difference to the price premium typically associated with sustainable packaged goods.

Kibble refill station

When it comes to sustainability and environmental initiatives, we often think about, well, “human food,” but a recent study showed that global pet food production reached 34.17 million metric tons in 2021. Furio believes the industry has been so slow to innovate because industry leaders have remained invested in the way they have been doing things over the past several decades. “True innovation and category change usually comes from small, entrepreneurial companies like Canidae. We know from our research that sustainability and choosing eco-friendly brands is very important to our consumers,” he says. “We can not only create better, more sustainable food for pets, but also support regenerative farmers as well as increase demand for sustainable, humanely raised animals and fish. We are leading the category in sustainability and hope others follow so that our impact can be of a much greater magnitude for the planet.”

As for what’s next, Furio says the company has a lot going on. “Everything we are doing—from product to packaging to our operations—is being done with the aim of creating a more sustainable world of goodness for pets and our planet. We are committed to our sustainability goals. In the near term, we are expanding the Kibble Refill Station to 100 more locations and expanding the use of recyclable and PCR bags. In the longer term, we are investing more aggressively in Regenerative Agriculture and Green technology as well as sustainable innovation that impacts the entire value chain. Many of our competitors are dabbling in sustainability with a small line or one or two investments. But we are embracing sustainability as our company mission and are working towards being the category leader in sustainability. It is an exciting journey and will have massive payoffs for our pets, our company and the planet.”