Natural Pet Founder – Marty Grosjean – Why Seniors Love Pets – Infographic

Marty Grosjean was from the technology and e-commerce world before he founded Only Natural Pet, an all-natural pet product company that offers everything from food and vitamins to chews, treats and grooming supplies.

So how does a tech and e-commerce guy become inspired to launch a pet product company? Grosjean says he was a pet lover and natural foodie in his own personal life … but it was also so much more than that. We asked him a couple questions to find out just what the process was like for him to launch ONP in June of 2004 — and what he hopes the future holds for it.

Besides being a natural foodie in your own life, what inspired you to start the company?

I started the company with my sister, who was married to a holistic veterinarian at the time. She asked for my help in building an e-commerce website for their veterinary practice, but when I started to investigate the options for purchasing natural food and alternative health remedies for pets, I discovered that they were very hard to find, whether in retail stores on on the Internet. Since I was a believer in the power of healthy, natural diets and alternative remedies for pets based on my own experience with my dog, Crinkles, I figured we should make it easier for people to buy these products.

What were a few of Crinkles’ issues?

Crinkles had issues with stress from her years in shelters, so I turned to homeopathic remedies to help her deal with stress. I also started feeding her a healthy diet, including fish oil and a joint supplement and saw a huge improvement in her health.

What core products did you launch the company with?

We started selling all the leading food, treats and supplements from other manufacturers, and soon had the largest selection of those products on the Internet. Within a couple of years we started developing our own products, starting with a natural flea powder for managing flea infestations. Soon we released our own treats, supplements, grooming product and food. Now we have over 200 of our own products, which is the most complete range of natural products avaialble from one brand. We have strict definitions about what ingredients can be included, so that our customers know they can trust the products to be natural.

What have you learned from your customers?

That people consider their pets as part of the family, and they want them to have the same quality food and supplements they use for themselves. They are willing to spend a little more to have healthy, natural products that will give their pets a better quality of life.

What do you see as the future for the pet industry?

Natural products is the fastest growing segment of the pet industry. There has been an explosion of new products calling themselves natural in the last five years, some of which are natural and some of which are just pretending to be. The value of a brand like Only Natural Pet is that people can trust it to be natural, without having to become experts and figure it out themselves.

Dog image via Shutterstock