PEI pet food startup receives support from local fish plant

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NINE MILE CREEK, P.E.I. — A P.E.I. woman’s idea for pet food impressed another local entrepreneur so much, that he’s giving up some of his space so she can produce it.

Kendra MacDonald has a passion for providing cats and dogs with nutrition she said people are not going to find it on grocery store shelves.

The 30-year-old Charlottetown woman founded Pawfection and has been manufacturing fresh pet food at the Bait Masters plant in Nine Mile Creek.

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Bait Masters does not charge her rent to use its space and, because it was a startup itself, has decided to give MacDonald a boost as a new startup business.

MacDonald has no employees and does most of the work herself.

“I’m very passionate about it because I really believe in feeding pets real food because a lot of our pets are chronically ill,” MacDonald said on a tour of her business on March 13. “They have a lot of inflammation, in general, and I think it’s from over feeding them.”

Career path

A graduate of Tantramar Regional High School in Sackville, N.B., MacDonald went into the nursing sector while she was in high school and worked with dietary food for about eight years.

MacDonald moved back to P.E.I. just before the COVID-19 lockdown, where she took up accounting, working for a bookkeeping firm.

When she was laid off, she took a Skills P.E.I. business course and looked into self-employment opportunities.

That led her to create Pawfection.

She understood what the impact of good food was, not just physically but psychologically, especially when an animal begins to age. One day she realized she didn’t know anything about the origin or quality of the ingredients she was feeding her pets.

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“I was paying for over-the-counter dog food one day and it hit me,” said MacDonald, who owns two dogs.

Paws-itive support

Mark Prevost, co-owner of Bait Masters, immediately backed MacDonald and told The Guardian repeatedly during the interview how much he believed in her product.

Prevost said good quality pet food is beyond the means of 70 per cent of pet owners while statistics indicate 67 per cent of people will opt to buy less expensive pet food from grocery stores.

“We’re making money doing this and … she’s got a good quality product that is not out of reach (financially) for most pet owners,” Prevost said. “I own a dog, too, and I know a fair bit about nutrition for dogs and I recognize a good price for high-quality food.”

The dried-out mackerel treats MacDonald sells, for example, are $11.99 per package at Pawfection. These kinds of treats retail for around $17.99 in local pet stores.

Neither MacDonald nor Prevost are asking pet owners to stop buying dried food for their pets, but they encourage anyone to mix in the store-bought treats with the product Pawfection sells.

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How it started

MacDonald contacted Bait Masters six months ago looking for some fish and asked to come out and look at the business’s machines.

MacDonald and Prevost hit it off and she decided to expand out of her home and into a space in the plant that he set aside for her.

She was awarded a $6,000 grant from Canada’s Food Island and spent less than $1,000 on two dehydrators to set up shop.

MacDonald also makes pork, chicken and ground beef treats.

Locally sourced

Prevost said all the products come from local producers.

“Everything is sourced locally and I do everything myself right here on the Island,” Prevost said.

MacDonald still has 100 per cent ownership in her business and reiterates her message.

“My mission is to provide real food for pets that is biologically appropriate and charge people a reasonable price.”

Where to Buy Kendra MacDonald’s Pawfection Pet Food:

Dave Stewart is a reporter for The Guardian in Prince Edward Island. He can be reached at dstewart@postmedia.com and followed on X at @DveStewart.

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