Lucky Dog! Freshpet Is the Latest to Join the Organic Food Craze

The pet food industry produces $22.5 billion annually and growing. Freshpet debuted on the Nasdaq in the fresh and refrigerated pet food space. CEO Richard Thompson tells TheStreet’s Jill Malandrino Freshpet’s goal was to make better, different more interesting food than what has been out there for the past 70 years. It has been quite an undertaking over the past eight years to manufacture and distribute the product nationally because there was no infrastructure to do so previously, making it a high-barrier-to-entry business. Thompson says Freshpet is now available in 12,500 stores and he believes the company can grow it to 35,000, or 3X from where it is today. Marketing on TV, digital and YouTube have been big drivers for brand recognition, as well. Thompson explains now was a good time to go public and access the capital markets so Freshpet can invest in further growth and expansion.