Q&A Interview with Julie Maday, CEO of Independent Pet Partners
How have the pet specialty channel and industry at large evolved since you joined IPP?
I think about first and foremost, the concept of innovation. What has innovation meant? And at first when I joined, it felt like there was rapid innovation happening across food, consumables items. We were getting more and more into the freezer case, freeze-dried, air-dried. They were all starting to spike into interest levels for most people. While the phrase “humanization of pets” has been around for a long time, it was becoming much more mainstream. In 2021, we were at this precipice, and coming out of Covid, people had all these new pets; pet households were getting younger and more Millennial households were getting into pet. They weren’t interested in feeding what their dog ate when they were growing up. They wanted their dogs to eat better. That was the start of my journey four years ago. As I think about innovation today, in many ways it feels like it’s a lot more around brand innovation. What really strikes me is that the industry is attempting to take personalization to a different level. The ship-to-home, direct-to-consumer concept, there’s been so many of them, and the proliferation is great. But what I’m noticing in the last year or so is how many of them are reaching out to us trying to actually have a retail footprint, because it turns out it’s really hard to do what we do in an e-commerce only environment. Sure, you can buy dog food anywhere, but the magic of being in the pet industry is having a conversation. There’s nowhere better to have a conversation than in a neighborhood or independent pet store. Even these direct-to-consumers, all of these different brands that are looking for the utmost in personalization, what they’re learning is it’s not about slapping the dog’s name on the food and mailing it out to you; it’s about being able to have that conversation and ensuring the right diet and the right time and giving the right variety. That is just something neighborhood pet does so well. The evolution just continues to lead back to us which is so wonderful.
I would be crazy to not also mention the single biggest thing that has come up in the last year or two that I’ve noticed is cats. We used to have the year of the cat, and I started joking I don’t know if it’s the Taylor Swift effect, but she has certainly done some good things for cats; and in honor of her tour, I’ve joked that we are now in the era of the cat. It’s not going anywhere anytime soon. I just love really truly focusing on cat in a very different way. In every single one of our stores we completely refreshed our health section. We really dug deep into cat. Cat parents are still largely shopping in the supermarkets for their pet’s food even if they’re coming to us for their dog. And I think one of the bigger trends is that multi-pet households are starting to ask more questions about their cats. There may not be as much straight innovation or change in the way that the cat product is showing up, but those pet parents are clamoring for a different, more innovative solution for that animal. I would argue the humanization of pets, up until a couple of years ago, was really more about the dog. So, whether it’s Global Pet Expo or I’m looking forward to going to SUPERZOO in August, there is so much happening with cat.
How are developments on the distribution side affecting retailers?
It’s all around interesting. In general, we are heavily dependent on distributors. We do a bit of our own product in warehoused space that we rent, but for the most part we are dependent on the distribution network.
There is a time of uncertainty with tariffs. Fortunately in the pet food industry we are less impacted. So, much of what we sell in food and treats is domestic. The absolute majority, not all, so much of it is domestic. We are working with our partners that are bringing in products from China. I keep telling family and friends you might not get to buy that cute stuffed plush Christmas tree toy this year or whatever that might be when so much of that product is of course made in China. Even with the level of uncertainty we have today a lot of that production is going to occur. It’s not that we can flip a switch tomorrow and the world goes back to normal.
Learning from port strikes, supply chain disruptions in the past, it has impact for months and months to come, and so we’re hopeful to minimize that by finding more regional or domestic options. There are some, but the amount of scrambling that is happening in the pet industry to try and lock up uncertainty for our pet parents just around toys and feeding and leashes and collars in general especially as we head into the holidays is going to be a bit of a rude awakening, a delayed reaction the world is going to see. Thankfully, we are so blessed and we’re much less impacted by the uncertainty that exists in the world around us.
Consolidation amongst distributors impacts us in a big way and just the general uncertainty around product sourcing and timeline, we’re getting e-mails from vendors every week telling us there’s going to be significant delays and/or costs are going up a lot. We’re now having the difficult conversation of how much of that do we pass along to our pet parents? Can we absorb some of it? Can the distributors absorb some of it? We do think things will start to turn around but these transition moments are difficult.
How does the role of the pet specialty channel continue to evolve?
There is a different type of convenience that’s important.
‘I’ve got a problem and I need a solution.’ Not every situation warrants a vet visit, and whether it’s questions about changes in eating behavior or anxiety levels, we have those experts in our stores. The sheer amount of training hours our team puts in to be ready to answer those questions. We love when we have those moments to really understand the pet parents and their needs. And no one else does that.
We are extremely clear on our reasons for why we exist and it fits in our stores. While we will work very hard to be convenient in an e-commerce environment and in a marketplace environment, we really focus on the people who live within 10 to 15 miles from one of our stores because that magic will never translate to a website.
Regardless of the amazing training we put in print, people want to have a conversation about their animals. We want to have a conversation about your animals and it allows for that personalization, that high touch, heartfelt moment. We do have people bring in their pets into our stores. People absolutely love that experience. No one else can do it in the same way.
What are the top challenges pet owners are facing?
It’s a challenge to figure out what is good enough. What’s a little different about the Millennial, or certainly the Gen Z pet household, is they were willing to spend more on their animal right off the bat. The younger pet households that dove in head first, maybe it’s not having the same level of brand loyalty to a brand, or maybe it’s just looking for variety and trying to make their money last longer. I think one of the bigger challenges is trying to dissect and consider all of these amazing brands that we have all of which are great to feed your animal and to decide what’s good enough for my animal, and where do I need to go all the way to great or exceptional.
We have a lot of pet parents that feed nothing but raw frozen and that is such an amazing health benefit to their animal. Some people now think about that more as a topper because they’ve had to cut back a little bit. Maybe they’re a little more kibble centric.
We are trying to figure out from a supplements perspective—how we’re getting a really well-rounded holistic nutritional experience for every single animal. We have certain stores where the pet parents seem to be a little bit more able to spend on their animals, and then there are certain pockets of the country there are pet parents that are trying to figure out ways to cut back a little bit without compromising the health of their animal. That is a very real challenge, and certainly you could argue that is always going to be true in the world. When the economic conditions are as uncertain as they are over these last couple of years, we have that in spades, so a lot of our conversations are around the different lines of food and where can we make tradeoffs and changes. Oftentimes they work hard to keep their food consistent. But at times there are changes being made in the food category as well and so we try to work hard with our pet parents on where they’re at. No one should ever feel ashamed asking those kinds of questions. If we have to make change, we make change, and we’ll help them navigate that. That’s probably been the biggest one.
The other thing too is watching the numbers across the US and seeing that it’s true: dog-only households are declining. But the hidden silver lining of a lot of that is dog households are becoming dog and cat households. So, with the rise of this cat ownership, how do you have an environment that works really great for both dogs and your cat? That’s a unique challenge too. That’s a fun one. We love that one because it’s a great conversation we can have on how to make sure you are keeping all of your animals successful and healthy.
What do you attribute to IPP’s continued success?
The people. It’s that simple. Without people that care as much as they do, we would be nothing. We have store managers who have been with us for 15 to 20 years. There is so much heart in what we do and so much excitement and experience. That focus on culture and protecting it is what makes us great. If I’m going to pick a battle, it’s going to be culture every day of the week. I’m a firm believer if you invest in your people, everything else works itself out.
When we find that balance between the business side and the heart that comes along with it, there’s nothing more important that what we do. We are successful and are able to grow because we have an amazing team.
What is IPP’s strategy to stand out from the crowd?
I’m going to come back to the team because so much of what makes us great is our team’s involvement and the way they get to know their pet parents. That human touch, that human connection that comes in spades it really does set us apart. It makes neighborhood pet as a whole stand out.
We don’t think we’ve got it right. We don’t think we have this impression that we’re fully cooked or done; whether it’s with our assortment or our training programs, we’re going to open at least eight new stores this year – we’re not done. We haven’t figured out the secret sauce to everything. We are constantly in learning mode, and whether we’re learning from a pet parent’s question or a store team member’s, we’re always trying to learn and grow and figure out new and better ways of doing things. I’m in stores all of the time and my store managers know there’s always one question that I will ask: What do I need to know that I don’t know? I really do think that sets us apart. It’s so easy to think I’ve worked so hard to get where I’m at, I’m done. But we’re never done and we never will be.
How does IPP advocate for pets and pet parents?
That one is easy for us because that’s why we get out of bed. There is so much going on, and the easiest example is we opened our first new store since Covid last year in Colorado, and the first one was really hard. We hadn’t really fully developed that muscle back yet. But it was just sheer brute force and we had people flying from Minneapolis to support; we had vendors on site to help us think about setting products. It was an all hands on deck moment because we knew if we didn’t set our store manager up for success on day one when she opened those doors, she wouldn’t be able to do her thing and support her pet parents. It’s the humility of my title might be CEO, but I was slinging bags on her shelf just like everybody else to make sure she was going to be able to do what she’s best at, which is helping that pet parent. There are no C-suite titles when it comes to making sure that pet parent gets what they need. It is all of our obligation to make sure our store teams are treated well and prepared as humanly possible to serve that pet parent and do what they do so well.
