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The unemployment rate may be north of 10%, but pet-product makers are booming.
According to the National Pet Owners Survey, about 71 million U.S. households, or 62%, owned at least one pet in 2008, up from just 56% in 1988, the first year the survey was conducted. Money lavished on pets has increased at a far faster clip, to an estimated $45 billion this year (more than a third of which goes to food), nearly double the $23 billion spent just a decade ago.
A big driver: empty nesters with no one to dote on. People over age 60 used to eschew pets, "but the baby boomers are changing all that," says Bob Vetere, president of American Pet Products Association.
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Another explanation for all that growth is that pets have a salubrious effect on humans--helping to relieve stress, lower blood pressure and, according to The National Institutes of Health, even prevent heart disease. One Georgetown University study purports that pets do wonders in diffusing spousal arguments. (Baby-talking to Fido, as if he were a mediator, can add a shot of levity when it's needed most.)
Where there is demand, there are entrepreneurs--and in this business, some are marking their territory in rather quirky ways. Here are but a few:
DoodyCalls
This franchise, founded in 2005 by husband-and-wife team Jacob (age 32) and Susan (33) D'Aniello, in Charlottesville, Va., started with $100 worth of photocopied fliers. DoodyCalls picks up where pets drop off. It charges $15 to $20 per week, depending on the size of the yard and number of pets. Apartment communities and home owners associations pay $65 to $75 an hour for clean-up and pet-waste service stations (removing waste and replenishing plastic bags).
DoodyCalls now has 49 locations (seven company-owned, 42 franchised) in 22 states, with five more slated to open this year. Total revenue for the entire DoodyCalls network is on track to jump more than 40%, to $3.2 million, this year from 2008.
Mutt Huttz
The bulky dog crate in Betsy Hauser's living room was really cramping her style. Her answer: Mutt Huttz, purveyor of custom crate covers ($124-$134.99), pre-manufactured crate covers ($80-$90) and dog beds ($69-$90), sold in various colors and sizes (all cotton and machine washable) through the Mutt Huttz Web site and 50 independent pet stores across the U.S. Hauser launched the Charlotte, N.C.-based company last year with $17,000 in savings and loans from her family. As sales picked up, Hauser hired two part-time seamstresses to help sew custom crate covers and beds; a contract manufacturer in Monroe, N.C., handles the off-the-shelf stuff.
Hauser, 28, has booked $40,000 in revenue through October. To attract a broader (and less affluent) audience, she plans to roll out the Mutt Huttz Cozy, an adjustable crate cover that fits many different brands of crates, at a lower price point, just in time for the holiday shopping season.
Animal Acupuncture
Dr. Babette Gladstein, founder of Animal Acupuncture, is a rare breed in pet land: She makes house calls. Since 2002, the 59-year-old stock broker turned veterinarian has been treating furry patients with a combination of traditional and alternative medical techniques--from chiropractic massage and acupuncture to prolotherapy and in vitro fertilization treatments. (Prolotherapy is a non-surgical orthopedic procedure that helps ease arthritis.)
Gladstein charges up to $3,000 for prolotherapies and $300 an hour for acupuncture and laser treatments. About 80% of Animal Acupuncture’s roughly $330,000 in revenue this year will come from alternative treatments for dogs, cats and the occasional horse. Her biggest challenge: credibility--which she aims to shore up by doing pro bono work for the Humane Society.
Says Gladstein: "As a stock broker, I was making money for money's sake. Now I love my work."
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