Changing the pet food industry, one piece of kibble at a time

In 1985, a television show you’ve never heard of changed the way we feed our pets, leading Joey Herrick to bring organic and sustainable pet food to market. Today, Wells Fargo is helping him do it again with his company Breeder’s Choice. Read more at: https://stories.wf.com/breeders-choic...



Transcript:
I came back into to the pet industry because I wanted
to make animals’ lives better through nutrition.
I was in the pet food industry for 25 years,
and I sold my company and I started my foundation, to give back
because dogs and cats gave me and my family a great life.
I've done almost 30,000 free spay neuters to date.
I got back into the pet food industry
because I didn't know what to feed my dogs anymore.
So, I ended up buying the Breeder’s Choice pet food plant
because we needed to know what goes in our product.
When I was introduced to Joey and his leadership team, it was very easy to see.
This is a team
with great experience in the industry and a proven track record of success.
What really resonated with me, was so impressive
to see, was their passion around the wellness and health of pets.
As a dog owner, that really resonated for me.
Tell me
about some of the
raw materials that are here.
When you have your own business, and especially one of this size
and all these components, very important your relationship with your bank.
When Brad Whetton from Wells Fargo came in here and took a tour
and saw everything that we were doing, we just kind of hit it off.
This looks great.
Yeah, it came out really well.
Those first meetings with Joe and his team were a lot of fun,
and we got to learn about their vision and their goals, and we learned about
some of the challenges they’re experiencing.
Some of those challenges were very similar challenges
that existing clients were having.
And for us to be able to come to them and share some ideas around the challenges
really resonated.
And our team was able to customize an approach that worked for them.
Well, these are all our dry ingredients.
He understood business,
and he understood the components of this business and what we're trying to do.
So, Brad was able to get us the credit line that we needed from
Wells Fargo because we couldn't run the business without Wells Fargo.
The pet industry, and manufacturing particularly, have a lot of complexities,
and it's been fun for my team and I to come to join his team and provide ideas
and solutions and not only help him and support him in his company now,
but also really help him be in a position for long-term growth.
What's really cool with everything is I've never worked a day in my life,
because working with dogs and cats, and working for dogs
and cats to make their lives better, it’s a privilege.