MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO — Dane Creek Capital Corporation (DCCC) announced its creation of United Raw Distribution Inc. on Feb. 8. The new distributor will operate under DCCC’s subsidiary United Raw Pet Foods and will serve pet specialty retailers throughout eastern Canada.
“We’ve always forgone the direct-to-consumer model in favor of supporting our pet specialty retail partners,” said Glen Tennison, president and chief financial officer, DCCC. “Retailers who are supporting the growth of the raw pet food industry in increasing fashion are expressing a need for twice-a-week delivery as freezer space to keep excess inventory or ‘overstock’ in their stores is limited… We see the move to assume distribution of our foods in most of eastern Canada as the best way for us to serve the pet retail community.”
United Raw Distribution will begin delivering United Raw Pet Foods’ brands, including Mountain Dog, Naturawls, Pets4Life, Spring Meadows cat line and DCCC’s brand Baie Run. In March, the new distributor will then expand its delivery to include the entire product line of Spring Meadows and the Dexter’s brand. It will also distribute United Raw Pet Foods’ Tollden Farms products later in 2022.
“…In support of our retail partners, we will be offering over 20,000 square feet of warehouse capacity across our operations, including more than 5,000 square feet of frozen storage featuring state-of-the-art technology unique within the pet industry; seven temperature-controlled reefer vehicles, one of the largest fleets in the frozen raw industry in Canada; and a cutting-edge cloud-based ordering and routing system designed to enhance customer service,” Tennison said.
United Raw Pet Foods will continue its operations with other third-party distributors, including Anipet Animal Supplies in western Canada and Solutions Pour Animaux in Quebec. The company added extra warehouse and freezer capacity for its operations in Calgary, Alberta and Langford, British Columbia to work more closely with Anipet.
“In the west, integration will take a different form given the geographical complexities of the region,” Tennison said. “We intend to work more closely with Anipet, our current western Canada distributor, by integrating our infrastructure with theirs to provide enhanced last-mile delivery in certain parts of Alberta and British Columbia.”
DCCC’s creation of United Raw Distribution comes after 19 acquisitions and investments in pet food since 2017. Through United Raw Pet Foods, DCCC has acquired manufacturer Tollden Farms in March 2020 and several specialty pet retailers in 2021, including: Growlies Pet Foods Inc. in January, The Wild Side Boutique Inc. in April, Lucky Paws Enterprises Inc. and A Pet’s Life Ventures Inc. in August, and Pets West Pets & Supplies Ltd. in October. Most recently, on Feb. 1, DCCC and United Raw Pet Foods acquired Wodema Industries.
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