The Evolution of Pet Food

Commercially prepared pet food has come a long way since James Spratt introduced the first dog biscuit to pet owners in England around 1860. From flavors to textures to storage conditions, pet food has certainly evolved since Spratt’s original biscuit formula of beef blood, a wheat meal mixture, beetroot and other vegetables. Pets now have a smorgasbord of options for their owners to choose from.

The Freeze-Dried and Air-Dried Pet Food Trend Continues

At the 2024 Global Pet Expo, Debbie Phillips-Donaldson from Petfood Industry noted that new air-dried and freeze-dried pet foods and treats continue to be launched — maintaining the trend from previous years, where freeze-dried or air-dried raw pet foods, treats and toppers were popular new products. These dried products are meeting consumer demands while also providing benefits to retailers and manufacturers, since they are lighter, easier to handle and cheaper to ship.

How to Source Ingredients Suitable for Air or Freeze Drying

If you’re considering adding air-dried or freeze-dried pet foods to your product line, or you’re already manufacturing them, we can help with sourcing ingredients suitable for air or freeze drying. Some of the compatible ingredients we offer include:

• Custom premixes
• Vitamins and minerals
• Fruits and vegetables
• Kelp and flax
• Botanicals
• Structure and forming products
• Montmorillonite clay
• Prebiotics, probiotics and postbiotics

Bill Barr & Company Can Help

We’re here to help you keep up with the latest pet food trends. We can coordinate with suppliers to source ingredients, provide QA and make sure your ingredients are up to regulations. We can also handle storage, transportation, inventory and re-orders for you, so you can concentrate on developing the new products your customers are asking for. Give us a call today!

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Dedicated Sourcing

We handle the “bottom” 80% of your ingredients so you can focus on the top 20%. That means we coordinate with suppliers to source, provide QA and make sure the bulk of your ingredients are up to regulations. This saves you a lot of time, staff and resources so you can focus on more important aspects of your business.

Inventory Management

Once you have the right ingredient of the right quality at the right price, you need to manage it: Store it, transport it, inventory it and re-order it. We can handle all that for you. Bill Barr’s inventory management services take that weight off your shoulders so you can better use your own resources. Fewer staff. Fewer hours spent on logistics. Fewer stresses about all things in your inventory. And not only do we manage your inventory, we also manage it how you want it to be managed. Your level of involvement is entirely up to you.

But How Do Our Services WORK?

Our inventory management and dedicated sourcing solutions are designed specifically for your business’s needs, no matter the size of your operation, so it’s not a one-size-fits-all program. However, here are examples of how each works for specific clients.

We built a program for a client who needed sourcing help. This client was using more than 45 separate suppliers for 75+ ingredients. Imagine all the phone calls and coordination time! We stepped in and took over as the sole supplier for all 75 ingredients. That means that the client makes calls to a single source (Bill Barr), and we handle the rest.

This cuts down on our clients’ work immensely, and the client trusts that we’ll gather and share any required documentation and address logistics issues as they arise. We also keep the client informed of potential opportunities and places they can save money and be more efficient.

For another client, we manage inventory on a wholesale scale. After an initial establishment of minimum and maximum ingredient levels for each of the client’s facilities, we started handling everything from documentation to delivery of their ingredients. Using the client’s weekly inventory balances, we calculate usage, compare it to the average, and act accordingly.

While the client is obviously heavily involved when and where they want to be, we’re able to use our knowledge and logistics expertise to make their job easier. We plan full truckloads, keeping freight costs low while ensuring all ingredient levels within the minimums and maximums. We deal with any logistics issues that arise and keep everything moving on schedule.

The Answer for You

Whether a customer comes to us for dedicated sourcing, inventory management or some combination of both, our singular goal is to make their job easier, so they can focus less on the “little” things and more on the big picture.

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