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Building a Brand

Evanger’s Dog and Cat Food Company is expanding beyond its successful role as a private-label food manufacturer to build an innovative brand.

PROfiles
May 2005

When Joel and Holly Sher acquired Evanger’s Dog and Cat Food Company in 2002, the company was mainly focused on manufacturing private-label pet foods. Evanger’s, which was founded by Fred Evanger in 1935 to feed his championship great danes, got into the private-label business back in the 1960s and, since then, saw this segment grow to represent 95 percent of its overall business.

Under its new ownership, however, this is changing. While the Shers remain committed to the company’s private-label business, they are also determined to grow the Evanger’s brand into a significant player in the pet food market.

A Fresh Approach
The Sher’s first priority when taking over Evanger’s was to strengthen the company by investing in its manufacturing facilities, much of which was nearly 70 years old. “The plant used to be down three to four times each day,” remembers Joel.

Once the company’s plant was in shape, the Sher’s moved their attention to growing the Evanger’s brand, a tactic that the company’s former ownership never really got behind during their tenure. “When we were closing the deal to buy the company,” says Joel, “I had a discussion with the former owner, Irving Schweitzer; and I was telling him all of these ideas I had for the Evanger’s label, and he said to me, ‘Forget about your label, private label is what you want to do.’”

While staying focused on private label would have certainly been the easier road to travel, Joel was determined to swing for the fences by developing the company’s own brand of innovative products. “You’re not going to hit a home run by simply putting chicken and rice in a can,” Joel explains.

“With the Evanger’s line, I have all of this latitude to create new products. Until recently, if a private label customer was having success with its existing formula, it rarely wanted to change anything. Today, private-label customers seem to be looking for something a little bit different, and that’s what I was trying to create a couple of years ago–something different.”

Focused on palatability and choice, the Shers began experimenting with new formulas that resulted in unique product varieties, such as Duck and Sweet Potato. In addition, they began steering their new formulas away from the traditional loaf-type foods that dominate the market.

“There’s only so far you can go with that [loaf] look,” Joel explains. “It’s hard to sell something that looks the same as every other product on the market.”

To remedy this, the Shers moved to a meat-chunk consistency that looked much better and was more palatable than the traditional loaf-type foods. Then they moved on to hand-packed foods, which, today, define the innovation of the Evanger’s brand.

The company’s Hand Packed Specialties line of products have quite a unique look, indeed. Featuring names such as Roasted Chicken Drummette Dinner and Braised Beef Chunk with Gravy, these products resemble stew made for humans more than they do canned pet food.

The tactic of growing Evanger’s own line of foods has been successful for the Shers. Today, the Evanger’s brand accounts for approximately 30 percent of the company’s overall business (compared with 5 percent in 2002), and this is not because the private-label business has declined. Joel expects that Evanger’s brand foods will continue to grow to account for over 60 percent of the company’s overall business by the end of 2005.

Early Success
The Shers have experienced quite a bit of success early on with the company. In addition to a 7,000-square-foot expansion of Evanger’s manufacturing and warehouse facility, the company has seen its sales triple, compared with its 2002 totals.
In addition to the Sher’s efforts in improving the Evanger’s brand of products, Joel credits much of this success to the company’s commitment to using only fresh, high-quality ingredients in its foods.

“Our meat is off the knife, and used the next day,” Joel explains.
The next big success for the company promises to be the Evanger’s 100% Organic line, which should begin shipping this month. PB

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