The story behind the products; Chapter 1
by Gary Cohen
It was 1997, our 2nd year of business. Jody and I were enjoying the views on the shores of Terminal Island in Southern California. We watched as a fishing boat came in and unloaded its catch of mackerel. They cut off the head, cut off the tail, filleted the rest, and turned it into mackerel cat food, right on the spot. The cannery is where our original product was born. Unfortunately, the economics of fish processing in the US were not promising and the plant wound up closing their doors.
As fate would have it, in 2003, Jody and I were visiting our tuna cannery in Thailand. Coincidentally, the Thai cannery had hired the production manager of the plant that had closed in Terminal Island. We lamented the closing of the US plant and asked him if they could also produce cat food for us. Well, they had plenty of tuna, and the darker red meat – a “byproduct” of canning “people tuna” – was perfect for the project.
We asked them to come up with a few different
varieties of tuna cat food for us. I always felt that coming out with just 1 SKU of a product gets lost on the shelf. They basically said, “tuna is tuna.” So, we came up with the idea of putting a little bit of topping on the tuna – mackerel, shrimp, albacore. Since it was basically tuna and toppings, Jody came up with a very appropriate name: Tuna N Toppings! It sold well for us for 14 years, and we are more than pleased to announce that it's BACK and not going away.
we're also happy to report, we are back in good graces with our cats again, and we are sure your cats will love it too!