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Kosher
start up nibbles at dog-eat-dog industry
By Ronni Sayewitz -
February 15, 2002
It's
enough to give you paws err, pause: a Fort Lauderdale firm marketing kosher
chow for dogs and cats.
KosherPets
founders Martine Lacombe and Marc Michels say they're convinced pet owners are
hungry for a "super-premium pet food" that treats their pets to
rigorous culinary standards.
Although
some of the marketing on http://www.kosherpets.com
is targeted at Jewish pet owners, Lacombe and Michels say KosherPets is really
aimed at the millions of people who associate kosher products with a higher
standard of cleanliness and quality.
Sales of
kosher-certified products jumped 233 percent to $150 billion between 1996 and
2000 a growth spurt the trade publication Kosher Today largely attributes to
a desire for kosher cuisine among mainstream consumers.
"Our
typical market is people who are not strictly kosher but are aware that certain
meats are better than others," Lacombe said. "These people are careful
about what they put into their bodies and, by extension, they feel the same way
about their pets."
Until
recently, KosherPets was a part-time venture for the non-Jewish husband-and-wife
team, who have invested nearly $20,000 of their personal savings into the
company since it started in 1999. But while Lacombe also sells software out of
their home, Michels said he recently left his sales and management job at
Broadwing, a communications company in Fort Lauderdale, to focus his efforts on
KosherPets.
The recipe
for KosherPets combines chicken, rice, carrots and garlic. The couple created it
for their dalmation, Lola, after she started suffering from skin problems.
Although the couple "enjoy a good cheeseburger every now and then,"
Lacombe said they keep a "lenient kosher" home and thought a similar
diet might help the ailing dog.
Lola
thrived on the couple's concoction, to the point that other pet owners stopped
them on the street to marvel over her soft, silky coat. Lacombe and Michels soon
saw potential in the dog-eat-dog business world.
The couple
convinced an Aventura butcher to put the pet food in cans and peddled it by
word-of-mouth. By the fall of 2001, they'd sold nearly 120,000 cans at $3.99
each in Florida, New York, New Jersey and California, Lacombe said.
Sales have
been at a standstill since then, when the butcher sold his shop and Lacombe gave
birth.
Now
KosherPets is marketing a freeze-dried formula and is negotiating to outsource
the company's manufacturing and packaging at a national plant, Lacombe said. The
couple also is testing beef and lamb formulas.
But is it
really kosher to call KosherPets kosher?
Lacombe
insists that the food is prepared in accordance with Jewish dietary laws. It
comes from a kosher slaughterhouse (the couple is negotiating with Mifflintown,
Pa.-based Empire Kosher Poultry), the food will be manufactured at a plant that
doesn't make non-kosher products and it doesn't mix frowned-upon ingredients
like milk and meat, she said.
The food
is not certified as kosher by a mashgiach, or one who is trained to supervise
kosher food production, but Lacombe said, "that's not necessary because
it's not for human consumption."
But some
Jewish leaders wondered if the couple could be barking at the wrong food
bowl.
The only
time Jews are commanded to feed kosher food to their pets is during Passover,
when no one is allowed to derive benefits from chametz, or foods containing five
grains prohibited during the holiday, said Rabbi Moshe Scheiner of Palm Beach
Orthodox Synagogue.
Rice a
key ingredient to KosherPets is banned from some Jewish tables during that
time, although the prohibition has more to do with custom than Jewish law, said
Rabbi Pesach Weitz, kashrut administrator for the Orthodox Rabbinical Board of
Broward and Palm Beach.
"We
as Jews aren't required to give our animals kosher food," Scheiner said.
"But there may be people out there who will like the fact that it's better
for their pets."
E-mail
health care writer
Ronni Sayewitz at RSayewitz@bizjournals.com.
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