The Ledger
Every statement that passed quotation and attribution checks. Mix any filter with any other: certainty 1/5, debate potential 5/5, or both at once.
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Morris: New Tyson CEO Blocked Freshpet Funding to Force Distressed Takeover
“The last CEO that came in did not get along. And he said, let's get rid of all these other businesses. And they were basically like, well, what do we want to do with Fresh Pet? And he said, I don't care. Don't give them another penny. And because they had the …”
Morris: Commercial pet kibble originated from mid-century farm animal feed
“Because initially kibble came from animal feed in the forties, fifties, sixties. That's really where that grew out of the idea of having a kibble.”
Retailers Refused Equipment, Forcing Freshpet to Buy In-Store Refrigerators
“Yeah, we, and that was us kind of starting to launch into owning all of our refrigerators, but it was, we not only ended up in the pet food business, but we ended up in the refrigerator business.”
Morris: Consumers Will Buy Fresh Pet Food In-Store, Not DTC
“We feel as though the opportunity to deliver fresh food is where people are going to buy their fresh food over time, and that's going to be, they're typically going to make a trip to a store to do that. So that fresh trip is owned by the brick and mortar guys,…”
Morris Shifted $70M From Discounting to Brand Building at Purina
“Him and I, I'd say we were the key catalysts in really changing the way we started moving away from discounting, and it was, at the time, it was seventy million dollars in all kinds of discounting and couponing. That we were able to move out of those kind of i…”
Morris: Refrigerated pet food did not exist in US in 2006
“No, it didn't exist at all in the U.S. There was some raw food in the U.S., like what was originally done in Australia but it was frozen”
Morris: Commercial distributors refused to carry Freshpet during early testing
“It ended up being a van that we literally ended up hiring someone to drive a van to deliver to the stores because that was one of the next challenges was no one wanted to carry the product for us. None of the distributors.”
Morris: Tyson's Freshpet Investment Included Control Over Future Fundraising Terms
“They made an investment in us, and as part of the criteria, they had a basically a term in the agreement that means they could decide If they, we had had any other fundraising, what the terms were.”
Morris: Chairman Charlie Norris Provided Emergency Loan to Rescue Freshpet from Tyson
“And Charlie on his own the original angel investor and our chairman at that point stepped up and gave the company like an extended significant loan for a period of time in order to, for us to get through that period.”
Freshpet Unwound Tyson Deal and Brought in Mid-Ocean Partners
“We were fortunate enough in, in, in, in, to unwind the Tyson deal, and we brought in a private equity firm called Mid-Ocean Partners, and they invested in the company, and they helped fund it”
Freshpet Added Doors to In-Store Fridges After Open Units Failed
“We wanted to go with these open air refrigerators. And especially at night, the refrigeration or the air conditioning was turned off in the store, and the stores would get hotter, and the refrigerators just couldn't hold temp. So it, we ended up having to, ove…”
Morris: Freshpet grew over 40% the year of its IPO
“We had over 40% growth the year we went public.”
Freshpet Has Deployed Over 30,000 Branded Refrigerators in Retail Stores
“If I have one problem, I've got 25, or today, over 30,000 problems. Out there across the market, the number of fridges that we have.”
Morris: Meow Mix Did $200M in Annual Sales at Spin-Off
“Here's a brand. It's selling about two hundred million dollars a year and you have to figure out how to build a company.”
Morris: Retailers resisted Freshpet's refrigerated pet aisles despite PetSmart progress
“Even after We had made a little bit of progress with PetSmart and Petco, and we started talking to other retailers. It was back to the, you want me to do what? And I don't care if you were successful there. I don't think that's going to work in my store. And i…”