California father starts a dog food company

Robert Blemis has been in the animal feeding business for over 16 years, and now the father of two has started his own dog food distribution company in Redlands, California. His experience in the animal feed industry exposed him to the need for a pet food distributor in the area.

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Blemis says that many of his clients were going through Amazon, Petsmart, Petco, Wal-Mart, or Target for their pet food needs. You can find pet food practically anywhere these days. The mom-and-pop pet stores have a hard time competing with these large chain retails though.

The smaller stores also like buying local from small businesses like themselves. Blemis said that he felt compelled to put out a dog food that was only available to the mom-and-pop stores. That’s when he got to work on his second company, Nature’s Intent Premium Pet Food.

He began setting up the company less than a month ago, and his dog food already hit pet store shelves last week. Nature’s Intent offers two grain-free dog food flavors right now, chicken and lamb, and Blemis is hoping to have fish and bison varieties out later this year.

The main reason Blemis decided to start his company was to go after the bigger companies, the low-price leaders. He used his connections in the animal food industry to help him get what he was looking for- an inexpensive grain free dog food that could compete with the name brand giants.

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That’s exactly what he got. Nature’s Intent is a high-quality dog food that is made by a small family-owned business in Brownwood, Texas. The company is called Ethos. But that wasn’t Blemis’ only intention when he started Nature’s Intent Pet Foods.

He knows that the typical flow for pet food distributors is to start small, grow over time, and eventually get bought out by a bigger grocery-type retailer like Petco. That’s not what he envisions for his brand. He wants to grow his business and eventually turn it over to his sons, Austin, 6 and Drew, 3.

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He hopes that the company always stays independent and serves the small mom-and-pop pet stores with quality pet food at affordable prices. After a few months of retail service, Blemis also plans to start donating food to the San Bernardino County Animal Shelter on a regular basis.

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