Fresh dog food franchise Natural Hounds announced the launch of its new raw food line, available beginning in August both in-store at Natural Hounds locations and online via its website.
The expansion positions the brand as the only franchise opportunity in the fresh dog food category while adding one of the industry’s fastest-growing product segments to its business model, according to Natural Hounds.
Raw-feeding pet owners are among the most committed customers in the pet food market, according to the company, yet their options have been limited to warehouse brands trucked in from out of state or local butchers blending meat with no certification, no testing and no standards. In an effort to close this gap, Natural Hounds’ new raw line is made fresh in its own open kitchens, batch tested for safety and formulated to meet nutritional standards established by the Association for American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO).
“Raw has been one of the fastest-growing segments in pet nutrition, and it was a demand signal we kept hearing directly from our customers,” explained Conor Wooley and Rick Orlandi, co-founders of Natural Hounds, in an exclusive interview with Pet Food Processing. “Many dog parents wanted the benefits of raw feeding without having to manage sourcing, storage and safe handling themselves. Natural Hounds already had the infrastructure to solve that: one central production kitchen supplying every retail location. Raw wasn’t a stretch for the model, it was the logical next step.”
The raw recipes are closely related to Natural Hounds’ established cooked meals and use the same trusted suppliers. The formulation is refined from 10 years of producing fresh food and designed to meet what raw-feeding customers look for.
“The hub-and-spoke model, one central kitchen, many retail spokes, is what makes this possible at scale,” Wooley and Orlandi said. “Every location gets the same fresh, consistently made product, sold soon after it’s made, with knowledgeable staff on the floor who actually know the customers and their dogs. That combination of freshness, consistency and in-person relationships is hard for a national frozen brand or a DTC subscription company to replicate.”
Aiming to solve a daily pain point of having to open and store traditional raw food packaged in chubs, Natural Hounds packages its raw line in the same resealable 1-lb and 2-lb containers as its cooked meals.
“Raw feeders are used to buying a sausage roll, or in some cases a patty format — think a hamburger patty — which tends to carry a higher price point,” Wooley and Orlandi explained. “We offer raw in our existing cooked packaging format, matching the sausage roll price point while giving customers a far more convenient and superior package. Across all of our testing and sampling, this has stood out as the single biggest advantage we have over the competition.”
With the introduction of raw food, Natural Hounds franchisees now benefit from six complementary revenue streams: fresh cooked meals, raw food, treats and supplements, memberships, local delivery and sample packs.
“For customers, it rounds out Natural Hounds as a one-stop shop for their dog’s nutrition — no need to go elsewhere for a raw option. For franchisees, it strengthens an already-built system rather than adding new operational complexity: raw runs through the same kitchen infrastructure they’re already operating, adding revenue potential without adding overhead or guesswork,” Wooley and Orlandi explained. “It also brings a genuinely new income stream to the business. Raw and fresh customers tend to be distinct groups, so this isn’t cannibalizing existing sales — it’s a completely unique additional revenue stream for franchisees.”
The full Natural Hounds raw food line is available now on Natural Hounds’ website and will roll out in stores beginning in August.