Q&A with Pete Stirling of Skout’s Honor
What encouraged you to join the pet industry?
My dog. I have always had a pet growing up. I have always enjoyed spending time with them and I was looking for something new to do, so I just drew on inspiration from something that has been there the whole time—my animals. The reality is my partner and I worked in this industry for a while on the chemical side of things, and we were looking for the next thing. We both love animals and decided to get into products that we could use on our own animals—safely around our family and kind of fill that niche. We saw a lack of environmentally friendly and overtly safe products, which is sort of a big thing since we live in Southern California.
How does the overall pet industry compare today to when you joined?
We have only been in the industry for five years and this is our fifth year. So, the changes I have seen in the industry tend to be more immediately relevant. Obviously how the industry is dealing with the Covid-19 crisis. One of the things I have seen changed in terms of a fundamental shift is sort of the upcoming of e-commerce. When we first started, there was no Chewy.com. One of the things that was immediately apparent was the industry was not quick to react to that. I believe one of the best things that is going to come out of the pandemic are the adjustments that are being made by savvier retailers to catch up very quickly and be able to take advantage of the online customer base, and really figure out creative ways to implement their brick-and-mortar business and their e-commerce. That to me is going to be the future of pet specialty. The ones who can figure out a balance between e-commerce and brick-and-mortar are the ones who are going to be very successful in the next few years.
Which pet industry trends have caught your attention and how is Skout’s Honor addressing them?
I have really caught onto this and am excited about more of a preventative approach to dealing with some of those common issues we run into as pet owners. CBD, for example, is a great category example that has sprung up not necessarily to treat chronic pain, but a lot of times now people are using it as a preventative. That’s great. I love that stuff. When we launched our topical probiotic grooming line, that was really the purpose behind it—to figure out how do we sort of turn this grooming category on its head. Instead of always trying to figure out a solution that directly addresses a symptom of the underlining problem, how do we just address the underlining problem up front. Is there a way we can prevent the symptom from ever occurring in the first place? Everything we had when we launched this line—we wanted to really deal with what was causing these symptoms and problems to happen. We settled upon a really amazing solution to that and that has been huge for us as a brand. We actually in the next few months are going to release a bunch of information we just got back from system studies that we have been conducting on the efficacy of this product for just some really common skin issues and how well it preforms has really surprised us. So, I think the way of the future for pet is really going to be those preventative treatments—really looking at it, starting at an early age, how can I ensure my animal lives its best life and how can I live my best life with them?
How is the company setting itself apart from competitors within the pet industry?
Our company’s mission statement is to identify and either create or curate bringing the pet industry new technology to improve metrics on known products or achieve previously unobtainable results. We want to just figure out ways to make existing products better or to create a new type of product that is able to deliver in a way no product like it has been able to. Again, topical probiotics—awesome. No one ever really thought about them before. We were able to take topical probiotics and introduce them into the pet industry in a recognizable package—shampoo, conditioner, detangler, deodorizing spray. These are things people are buying every single day. Now I can give their dog a shampoo that will prevent their dog from ever getting itchy in the first place. Where in the past they were doing whatever they could do to calm the itch—well why not prevent it from become itchy? That’s how we have always set ourselves apart. People wanted a more environmentally friendly cleaner, but there was always an exception. People couldn’t get the performance they wanted out of it. We were able to identify and bring into the industry a new technology for green cleaning products that allow us to produce a product that is not only environmentally responsible, but most more powerful than anything they were currently using. We make products that set themselves apart.
Who has been your biggest advocate and supporter?
My partner Macon. He has been my biggest advocate and supporter as an individual. From a company standpoint, it has really been the independent pet retailers and the independent distributors. They have been huge advocates for the brand. They have been really supportive all the way and helped us out with product development to obviously getting the product into the hands of the end users. We really couldn’t do this without them and that is something we remember every day when we show up to work. It’s our job to make sure that they are able to follow through on their promise to the customer to be able to provide a better solution the customer walked in the door with.