Hill's Pet Nutrition opens Small Paws Innovation Center to study and meet the needs of small dog breeds – The Topeka Capital-Journal

Topeka-based Hill’s Pet Nutrition celebrated an expansion this week that will allow the company to study and meet the specific needs of small dogs and pets.
Hill’s and Colgate-Palmolive executives, Gov. Laura Kelly, and other local and state leaders gathered Wednesday afternoon at Hill’s global headquarters in North Topeka to observe the grand opening of the company’s new Small Paws Innovation Center.
The recently completed innovation center is a $30 million, 25,000-square-foot facility dedicated to studying the nutrition, behaviors and genetics of small and miniature dog breeds, which are growing in popularity among pet owners.
“In the United States, more than 50% of dogs are now what we call small dogs,” said Hill’s president Jesper Nordengaard. “In Japan, it’s in the excess of 85%. So, of course, we need a facility like this, where we can do research and get these beautiful creatures the right food, so they can live happy and long lives.”
The new Small Paws center will be home to 80 dogs under 20 pounds. Those dogs — which Hill’s dubs its “pet partners” — will be studied and given specially formulated nutrition to meet unique needs.
Those small dogs join the more than 420 cats and more than 430 dogs Hill’s already works with at its other facilities.
According to Yvonne Hsu, Hill’s vice president of global marketing and communication, about 250 professionals, including veterinarians, scientists, nutritionists and pet caretakers, will work out of the new innovation center.
She added there may be opportunities for additional hires, and she expects the new center to have a roughly $30 million economic impact over the next few years.
Hill’s is located within the Kansas City Animal Health Corridor — a concentration of more than 300 animal-health companies, stretching from Manhattan to Columbia, Mo. Companies in the corridor account for more than 50% of total animal health, diagnostics and pet food sales worldwide.
“As a result, the industry has a tremendous impact on our state and provides thousands of good-paying jobs,” said Gov. Kelly, who noted the Small Paws Innovation Center is “a welcome addition” to the Animal Health Corridor.
Noel Wallace, president and CEO of Colgate-Palmolive, Hill’s parent company, said Hill’s has been contributing to pet-food science for generations and has become a global leader in pet nutrition.
“With our dedicated research team and science as our foundation, we’ve earned the trust of both pet parents and the veterinary professionals we work with all over the world,” Wallace said. “With so many pet parents choosing small and miniature breeds, we have made a big commitment to small paws.”
Hill’s has been active in Kansas for almost 80 years. In addition to its headquarters in Topeka, Hill’s has a manufacturing plant in Emporia and recently announced plans to build another facility in Tonganoxie.
The Tonganoxie facility should be completed within the next two years and is expected to result in at least 80 new jobs.

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