Category Catalysts: Gently Cooked Premium Foods - Nulo

Nulo’s focus on the growing demand for fresh, visible ingredients in pet food has led to the development of their gently cooked meals, which offer the texture and appearance of fresh meats, fruits and vegetables while combining seemingly opposing facets by ensuring its shelf stable. This approach echoes pet parents’ values for transparency, nutrition and ease of handling. 

“The fresh feed category has grown tremendously in the last number of years, and consumers are certainly looking for the visibility that comes with fresh ingredients and being able to see the fruits and vegetables in the foods, along with the symbols that it sends about freshness, quality and nutrition—it resonated,” said Head of Retail and Product Marketing, Eric Emmenegger. “That’s been one of the fastest growing categories in pet food for the last number of years. What we found is, for Nulo in particular, being able to build a line off of that consumer demand has been really important. Gently cooked meals is doing that. It picks up the cues of fresh from the texture of the meats and the visibility of that to also the fruits and vegetables that you can see in the different recipes. But then it has the additional benefit of being shelf stable. And so, what we took away from the research we’ve seen and done, consumers while they want those things from fresh, they also know there is very precious refrigerator or freezer space. They also end up wanting something that is easier to handle and manage. The gently cooked meals and the pouches that we offer addresses both of those demands while giving the visual cues in nutrition that consumers are seeking.”

Pet owners treat their pets as family members and want to provide them with the best nutrition for a healthy, energetic life, and part of that effort is paying attention to pets’ body language to detect illness or injury. 

“We all know our pets are like our children, and we care for them in that way,” Emmenegger elaborated. “We want the best, and we also know that they can’t tell us when they’re not feeling well. Often when it comes to things like nutrition or how they’re feeling, we don’t know until there is some incident that comes into play. Nutrition is something we understand has a direct impact on how we feel, and in turn, it’s easy for us to say we’ve got to do the best for our pet as well. That’s where a lot of the fresh cues are coming in, that’s where the fresh space has really been able to hit the mark with consumers and then, this idea that fresh is still cooked, so those meals are. The idea of being able to take that and make it a gently cooked process and acknowledge that, but make it convenient, is certainly the place where consumers are most appreciative and gravitating.”

Nulo’s nutritional philosophy is inspired by the principles of proper nutrition used by high-performance athletes to optimize performance and health. 

“That falls right to the principles of how Nulo was founded and our nutritional philosophy of high protein, low carbohydrate low glycemic ingredients,” he said. “We use a lot of Olympic athletes and high performance athletes as our examples of what proper nutrition can do for body and performance and translating that over to pets, we also know that when you feed them the right way and in the way that their bodies are optimally able to digest ingredients and process that, you’re going to end up with healthier pets. You’re going to have more memories together, more time together, more of those great days together that we all long for. Because It is feeding them in the way that their body can optimally process it. That is how we formulate everything. We take very seriously the high protein, low carb mantra and the ingredients that we put in there as a result. What matters is the time that we have with our pets, making the most of it and giving them the best chance.”

Nulo invests in educating retail staff within the independent pet food channel. One reason is that consumers heavily depend on knowledgeable associates when navigating the complex and crowded pet food aisles. By equipping retailers with the expertise to guide pet owners, Nulo and retailers are fostering trust and ensure pet owners make informed choices. 

“We certainly do a ton of training within the independent retail channel and bring that to that really influential relationship,” Emmenegger said. “We know that so many people, when they go into that shopping experience, into the retail store, they’re looking for advice, they’re looking for counsel about how to separate and identify what’s best of this complicated, proliferated pet food category. There are so many options out there. We know that using the retailers to try and bring that education to consumers is super critical, so we do that. We do as much online as we can but there’s limitations as far as reach and engagement. But really it’s the retailer who matters in those relationships because they’re so trusted. A trusted source goes a long way. when people go into the store, they’re asking these questions because they don’t know and they’re looking for someone with deeper knowledge and the associates care deeply, they see all of the different brands, their store assortment is curated and thoughtful and they know the recommendations that are made are coming from the right place and they’re trusted.”