Nutro

Nutro Profile

Back in 1926, a man named John Saleen bought a dog food company from a British entrepreneur. The new owner seized the opportunity to make his mark on the business, by naming the company Nutro Products, and relocating the operation to spacious, sunny Southern California. Nutro produced a higher quality product than others on the market, and generated a loyal customer base in the Southwest. Soon after World War II, Saleen's son took control of the company and Nutro remained a family-owned operation for the next 30 years. Still, Nutro dog food was available only regionally.

Family-run from the late 1920s through the mid 1970s, Nutro had always produced quality products. But when Nutro was purchased by a visionary in 1976, the company could compete effectively with the larger names in the industry while focusing on a goal - improving pet food beyond the status quo, to help dogs and cats live longer, happier lives.

Of course, success didn't come overnight. It took ten years of research and development before he and his company brought Nutro's first super-premium dog food to market. Under the guidance of Dr. Sharon Machlik, Nutro introduced the MAX line in 1985.

Nutro's healthful chicken, lamb and rice formulation attracted breeders and many retailers, which led to Nutro's novel method of promoting products. "We introduced comparative literature to the industry, we wrote pamphlets and brochures comparing our ingredients to those in other premium foods and challenged anyone to refute our claim that our food was better than anything else out there." says Jerry Sicherman, Nutro's current CEO.

Sicherman believes the key to maintaining that claim is one simple company policy: keep the emphasis on quality ingredients. During his tenure, Sicherman concludes there has never been a conflict between the performance of the food and the cost of ingredients. Through the owner's vision and the performance of Nutro's food products, sales have grown forty-fold since 1975.

Another element in Nutro's success during the past 20 years is a passion for educating consumers about pet nutrition. Nutro was also one of the first companies to actively educate retailers about its products and how to effectively market them. "We never went really big on advertising", says Ladd Hardy, Vice President of Marketing for Nutro. "Educating our retailers is a huge part of what we're about, and you can't do it in print. It has to be a face-to-face thing for the process to succeed."

So how does Nutro make the process work? With lots of human interaction. Nutro field representatives are constantly going into retail stores, staging educational seminars and demo programs, and speaking about what separates Nutro from the competition on the next shelf. While this method of marketing may be all hard work and not much glitz, in Hardy's experience, it pays off by being a win-win situation for both consumers and retailers.

Over the years, we've expanded the MAX dog food line to include a variety of products for every stage of a dog's life, and a full line of foods for cats. The extremely popular Natural Choice line was developed, with a wide variety of products for pets in every stage of life. High quality treats and biscuits are now a part of the line, as well as canned foods for both dogs and cats. Needless to say, Nutro has continued to grow exponentially throughout its eight decades in business. All along, quality has been the company's main focus. And that focus isn't going to change any time soon. Our goal is to continue to find new ways to elevate the quality of the foods available for dogs and cats, and to create new and better products whenever possible. Unlike so many companies these days, Nutro has no intention of going public. As a privately owned operation, we can continue to maintain our high quality standards. Like Ladd Hardy says, "You can't create the kind of products we do with investors looking over your shoulder talking about profit margins and market shares."

At Nutro, people would rather talk about what it takes to help pets live longer, happier, healthier lives.