Bloomington couple are innovators in animal nutrition – ECM Publishers

Plant-based dog treats, featuring meaty flavors such as barbecue chicken, are available locally and across the country, the brainchild of Bloomington-based Bright Planet Pet. (Submitted photo)

For all the brands of dog food and dog treats on the market, Katherine Ellison knew something was missing.
Her education and career experience in marketing and research helped Ellison identify an undeserved market in the world of animal nutrition. Dog treats, in particular.
Ellison’s vision is now being manufactured in Minnesota, and her Bright Planet Pet dog treats were named a recent winner of Purina’s 2022 Pet Care Innovation Prize.
And what makes the Bright Planet Pet dog treats distinct in the competitive world of animal nutrition? The Better Burg’r, Better Brat and Better BBQ Chick’n flavor dog treats are plant-based.
And yes, they taste as good as their meaty counterparts, according to Ellison’s research.
Idea is born
Having worked in qualitative market research for General Mills and Culver’s, Ellison has experience in both the grocery store aisles and the fast-food industry. Her job, in part, was to determine “how consumers determine what products to buy,” she said.
When she was laid off during the economic recession of 2008, Ellison decided she would leave marketing behind, opting for a veterinary career. Despite her strong bond with animals and initial experience working at veterinary clinics as part of her educational pursuit, Ellison realized she is better at business than veterinary science. So, she set out to combine her business and marketing skills with her love of animals, she explained.
She resumed her business career, this time working for companies in the pet industry, including American Nutrition, a Utah-based pet food company. Fast forward to 2020, and the coronavirus pandemic resulted in the second layoff of her career. It was at that point she decided to pursue an idea she envisioned a few years earlier, manufacturing plant-based dog treats.
Why create a vegan dog treat? The concept of plant-based meat alternatives flourished several years ago with products such as Impossible and Beyond burgers. Those products are popular with vegetarians, but they also resonate with consumers that are interested in products that produce less environmental impact than traditional meat products, Ellison explained.
The majority of Bright Planet Pet customers are not vegans. They’re more interested in sustainability, she said. And the manufacturing of Bright Planet Pet products creates less carbon emissions and uses less water than meat-based alternatives, she noted.
But what turned out to be a good idea wasn’t an overnight success. Ellison set out to create Bright Planet Pet products in the summer of 2020, working on her idea while going back to work for a California-based pet food manufacturer. After about a year of working on Bright Planet Pet, she was ready to dedicate herself to its initial product, Better Burg’r, full time in the summer of 2021, she recalled.
Using Kickstarter to help fund the start-up costs of bringing her dog treats to market, and her industry connections to sell the product, Ellison’s first big break came with an order from Canada’s Pet Valu, a chain of approximately 600 pet stores.
Plant-based dog treats, featuring meaty flavors such as barbecue chicken, are available locally and across the country, the brainchild of Bloomington-based Bright Planet Pet. (Submitted photo)
The brainstorming took place in Ellison’s Bloomington home, but the products are manufactured and warehoused in Delano. From there, they are shipped to fill orders across the United States and Canada, including approximately 450 Petco stores, which recently added Bright Planet Pet products to approximately one-third of its stores nationwide. If the treats do well, it will likely lead to nationwide distribution, according to Ellison.
Locally the products are available at Hy-Vee stores as well as pet stores, including Petco. Amazon helps the company reach customers who don’t have easy access to her products, Ellison noted.
Recognition
Winning an innovation award from Purina – one of five awarded from more than 100 products that were considered – included a cash prize that helped Bright Planet Pet’s start-up efforts, and a week at a Purina boot camp, where Ellison met with experts and other industry innovators.
Purina is a big name in the pet food industry, but it can take the company years to bring a product to market. Rather than view companies such as Bright Planet Pet as competition, Purina wants to foster innovation and promote the pet care industry, Ellison explained.
How does it taste?
When comparing a Bright Planet Pet dog treats to a meat-based treat, 72% of dogs choose the Bright Planet Pet treat first, according to Ellison.
That’s because the treats have a strong, meaty smell, despite their plant-based recipe. Finding the right recipe took about six months of testing before the first bag of Better Burg’r was ready for production, and recipe refinement continued for months afterward, Ellison noted.
Dogs will come back for more, so that offers pretty good evidence that the treats are tasty, but their opinions aren’t the only opinions on the matter. Ellison’s husband Dave has sampled the recipes, and pet owners aren’t averse to sampling the product, either, according to Ellison.
The Amazon reviews for Bright Planet Pet products so far give them 4.7 stars out of five. One customer bought all three flavors, but would only admit to smelling the treats: “These smell like actual animal meat, which is crazy, but no one was harmed in the making of this product. Awesome.”
Future growth
Cats like treats, too, but they’re naturally pickier than dogs, so it is more difficult to find the right formula and texture for a plant-based cat treat, Ellison said. But there are customers looking for a vegan cat treat, and the company has plans to market one, she noted.
In the meantime, Bright Planet Pet is developing a bacon-flavored treat to add to its product line, as well as a biscuit treat to compliment the soft and chewy treats now being sold, according to Ellison.
The company is also continuing its mission to combat climate change through the sale of its products. For every purchase, Bright Planet Pet donates to the Eden Reforestation Project, which plants trees to combat climate change. In 2021, Bright Planet Pet planted 15,581 trees, and by the end of this year, the goal is to reach 100,000 trees planted.
Information about the company, and a map of stores carrying the dog treats, is available online at brightplanetpet.com.
Follow Bloomington community editor Mike Hanks on Twitter at @suncurrent and on Facebook at suncurrentcentral.
Copyright © 2021 at Sun Newspapers/ APG Media of East Central Minnesota. Digital dissemination of this content without prior written consent is a violation of federal law and may be subject to legal action.
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