PET Food Processing - September 2021 - 17

PROCESSOR PROFILE
These are the three priorities for NaturPak Pet, a premium
wet pet food co-manufacturer using Tetra Pak cartons.
By Jennifer Semple | jsemple@sosland.com
F
For spouses and co-owners of Janesville, Wis.-based
NaturPak Pet Pawel and Iwona Marciniak, their marriage
goes back only slightly longer than Pawel's involvement
with Tetra Pak carton packaging systems. The couple
recently celebrated their 36th wedding anniversary
and Pawel has 35 years of experience working with Tetra
Pak in food processing applications. The couple moved
to the United States from Australia in 2002 while Pawel
was working for the company. In 2006, Pawel left Tetra
Pak and, with Iwona, opened IPM Foods in Beloit, Wis.
The human food co-manufacturing company initially
focused on producing soups, gravies and sauces in Tetra
Pak cartons.
IPM Foods grew over the years and in 2017 the company
moved from Beloit to Janesville. At that time, IPM
Foods was producing pet food for a single customer that
offered human-grade wet pet food formulas. Interest
from other pet food brands convinced the couple to
use the Beloit facility for pet food production. In 2020,
Pawel and Iwona created a separate co-manufacturing
venture, NaturPak Pet, to focus on providing wet pet
foods and toppers in Tetra Pak cartons to the pet food
industry. Also in 2020, NaturPak moved into a new
162,000-square-foot facility, just four miles from IPM
Foods' production facility.
" We knew that we were onto something quite big, "
Iwona said. " We had a feeling that this [processing and
packaging] platform would grow well in the pet food
category, and we moved in the spring of 2020 during the
peak of the pandemic to our new pet food facility with
two pet food lines in Janesville. "
Wet pet foods seem to be on a roll. Chicago-based
market research firm IRI reports wet dog food and
wet cat food sales grew 7.7% and 7.2% respectively between
2019 and 2020. According to NielsenIQ, sales of
shelf-stable wet pet foods in the United States reached
$1.32 billion in 2020, and roughly 33% of dog and cat
households reported purchasing all three of the reigning
categories in this market: wet food, dry food and treats.
This confirms an overarching pet industry trend toward
mealtime variety and combination feeding.
Left: NaturPak's new facility provided a 300% capacity increase
over its previous plant. The company currently has the capability
of producing 50 million cartons annually. Photos by Gabmaster Photography
www.petfoodprocessing.net | September 2021 | PET FOOD PROCESSING 17
" I see the future of this industry being wet food because,
for me personally, I cannot survive on potato
chips, " Pawel said. " Now and then they're great but I like
my steak to be moist. I like fresh food. Our seven-monthold
puppy is the same. He eats all wet food and loves it. "
Similar to IPM Foods' facility, the NaturPak's plant
is USDA-APHIS inspected, BRC audited and USDA
Certified Organic.
The first pet food formulas produced by NaturPak
were complete-and-balanced diets typically with meat as
the first ingredient. That continues to be the case today.
" The majority of the ingredients in the pet diets we
produce have always been meat... very rich and healthy, "
Pawel said. " But we also produce toppers and gravies as
part of the portfolio of products we offer to our pet food
customers. "
Using gravy, broth or a wet meal booster as a topper
to dry food is increasingly popular. Market research firm
Packaged Facts listed meal toppers and add-ins as a key
growth area in 2019 and, in a 2020 survey of pet owners
Together, Pawel and
Iwona Marciniak have
built both IPM Foods
and NaturPak Pet
into leading providers
of quality human
foods and pet foods
packaged in Tetra Pak
cartons. Pictured with
Pawel and Iwona is
their dog Coco.
http://www.petfoodprocessing.net
PET Food Processing - September 2021

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