Daily Business Report-May 17, 2018
The first Petcos featuring JustFoodForDogs are in San Diego County — Point Loma and San Marcos. Point Loma’s Petco will feature the exhibition kitchen (above is an example), while the San Marcos store will feature a pantry.
Petco Partners with Dog Food Maker
to Bring Exhibition Kitchens to Stores
Point Loma Petco will be among first in country
Dog owners: Ever wonder how the food you feed your dog is made, and whether it is nutritious?
At the Petco store in Point Loma, you’ll get to find out. The store is one of the first in the country that will be getting an exhibition kitchen, a place inside the store where customers can see how the food is made.
San Diego-based Petco is providing the added service through a partnership with JustFoodForDogs, a Los Alamitos company that uses only USDA grade meats and produce.
The partnership with Petco is a first of its kind as no pet retailer has ever built exhibition kitchens in its locations. While some Petco stores will feature these kitchens (such as Point Loma), others will house smaller pantries and runs that will be supplied with fresh product daily (such as the Petco store in San Marcos.) There was no indication of when these stores would get their new features.
Dog food made by JustFoodFor Dogs is formulated by a team of veterinarians, many of whom hold rare subspecialty degrees (e.g., nutrition, toxicology, dermatology, etc.). They were tasked with creating a brand of food designed to keep pets living longer and healthier lives. It will be made fresh daily before its customers at JustFoodForDogs exhibition kitchens. Petco stores in Los Angeles and Orange are also part of this program.
Petco CEO Brad Weston says that JustFoodForDogs has distinguished itself as a game-changer in the industry by encouraging pet parents to embrace, small batch, human-grade food that is “fit for human consumption but nutritionally balanced for pets.”
Shawn Buckley founded JustFoodForDogs in 2010 with the idea of developing an alternative to commercial brand dog food commonly found at retail stores. He enlisted a team of veterinarians who created the product then opened locations throughout Southern California. Some of the original team work full-time at JustFoodForDogs and are actively involved in the formulation of the food as well as studying its effects on dogs. They are also involved with conducting scientific research to support those studies.
“We are delighted to partner with Petco, the most prominent retailer of pet products and services in the world,” said Buckley, who added, in another first, JustFoodForDogs’ own nutrition consultants will staff the Petco stores.
“As the inventor of the most radical change in pet food in decades, JustFoodForDogs is on the vanguard of a new trend that is rapidly changing the industry,” said Petco executive vice president and chief merchandising officer Rebecca Frechette. “We researched other potential partners in the genre and decided to go with JustFoodForDogs as the company’s unwavering commitment to quality and love of pets mirror Petco’s core beliefs. Also, they have invested considerable resources in research and maintain a staff of vets who work tirelessly to improve the product.”
Added JustFoodForDogs CEO Carey Tischler. “What distinguishes Petco from other retailers is they share the same vision and commitment that our company values which is to change the standard in the way we feed our pets by offering the absolute best food available.”
Veterinarian Oscar Chavez, JustFoodForDogs chief medical officer and a professor of canine clinical nutrition, said, “A growing number of people regard their four-legged pets as family members and, thus, are taking better care of them than ever. I think we’re witnessing a paradigm shift in the pet food business and the partnership between Petco and JustFoodForDogs is representative of that.”
Last year, the $14 billion equity group LCatterton LLC made a considerable investment in JustFoodForDogs to expand its footprint. This lays the groundwork for the company teaming up with Oakland-based Pet Food Express (PFE) to build pantries and runs at several of its stores. Sales have been so brisk since the partnership started a year ago that PFE has green-lighted additional pantries and runs in its Northern California stores.
The pet food industry continues to evolve and the deal between Petco and JustFoodForDogs comes on the heels of some major acquisitions. General Mills purchased Blue Buffalo for $8 billion and J.M. Smucker Co. agreed to buy Ainsworth Pet Nutrition, a company backed by Rachael Ray, in a deal valued at $1.9 billion. Both companies are betting that pet food can help reinvigorate sales in a sluggish consumer-product industry.
Frechette added, “We are betting that continually reinventing the category will drive the next wave of growth in the industry.”
“As more and more pet parents are steering away from kibble and embracing real food (made from USDA-grade meats and produce), such strategic moves like those made by General Mills and Smuckers may prove obsolete,” said Buckley. “Just as the once-powerful Blockbuster Video gave way to Netflix, I believe we’ll soon see a paradigm shift in how we feed our beloved pets.”
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Business Outlook Solidly Positive
for Fifth Consecutive Month
The business community’s outlook remains steadily optimistic in this month’s Business Forecast, according to a report by The San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce. The Business Outlook Index sits at 21.9, relatively unchanged from 22.5 in March.
The forecast also looked into the topic of social media data privacy, and found that a substantial majority of San Diego businesses want federal legislators to regulate the use of the data collected by social media platforms. Interestingly, the frequency with which companies use social media platforms for marketing purposes does not influence attitudes on the regulation of the personal information these sites collect.
“The use of targeted advertising on social media is relatively new territory for businesses and it also opens another avenue for cyber criminals,” said Jerry Sanders, president and CEO of the chamber. “It’s understandable that businesses would want guidelines set for how this information can be accessed and used to help minimize risk to their own firm and also personal privacy.”
This month’s Business Forecast was sponsored by CalPrivate Bank.
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General Atomics Lands $206 Million
Air Force Reaper UAV Retrofit Contract
GovCon Wire
General Atomics’ aeronautical systems business has secured a potential six-year, $206 million contract to retrofit the latest variant of the U.S. Air Force‘s MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles, The Defense Department said.
General Atomics Aeronautical Systems Inc. will update 122 MQ-9 Block 5 UAVs through June 20, 2024.
USAF will obligate $40.9 million in fiscal 2017 and fiscal 2018 aircraft procurement funds at the time of award.
The service branch deployed Reaper’s Block 5 version in June of last year to support a combat mission as part of Operation Inherent Resolve.
The UAV features electrical and communications systems and can be equipped with AGM-114 Hellfiremissiles, GBU-12 Paveway II laser-guided bombs and GBU-38 Joint Direct Attack Munitions.
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Tourism Brings Record $351 Million
to Oceanside in 2017
Tourism continues on an upward trend in Oceanside, according to Visit Oceanside, which shared its most recent industry statistics at the organization’s 8th annual Tourism Summit held at the city’s historic Star Theater on Wednesday.
According to the most recent study by Dean Runyan Associates, visitor spending in Oceanside in 2017 was $351 million, representing a 10.1 percent increase from 2016. The visitor spending directly supported more than 3,300 jobs in Oceanside with tourism industry employment in the city increasing at an average annual rate of 5.1 percent since 2010.
“The end of the recession has certainly helped tourism growth, but even more impactful in attracting visitors to our city is the combination of a flourishing food and craft beer scene, compelling cultural offerings and exciting recreational offerings that continue to push the limits in fun,” said Leslee Gaul, CEO of Visit Oceanside.
Visitor spending on hotel rooms in 2017 totaled $240 million, nearly double the amount from 2010 and an 11 percent increase from 2016. This generated a record high in TOT tax, exceeding $7 million to help support vital city services including parks, recreation and public safety. The study also noted that the largest portion of visitor dollars are spent on food service, which reflects the popularity of the city’s burgeoning dining scene in recent years.
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Researchers Identify Gene
That Helps Prevent Brain Disease
By Mario Aguilera | UC San Diego
Scientists know that faulty proteins can cause harmful deposits or “aggregates” in neurological disorders such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease. Although the causes of these protein deposits remain a mystery, it is known that abnormal aggregates can result when cells fail to transmit proper genetic information to proteins. University of California San Diego Professor Susan Ackerman and her colleagues first highlighted this cause of brain disease more than 10 years ago. Now, probing deeper into this research, she and colleagues have identified a gene, Ankrd16, that prevents the protein aggregates they originally observed.
“Simplified, you may think of Ankrd16 as acting like a sponge or a ‘failsafe’ that captures incorrectly activated serine and prevents this amino acid from being improperly incorporated into proteins, which is particularly helpful when the ability of nerve cells to proofread and correct mistakes declines,” said Ackerman, the Stephen W. Kuffler Chair in Biology, who also holds positions in the UC San Diego School of Medicine and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute.
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New Neighborhood of Eight Homes
Opens on Afton Way in Carlsbad
Pebble Creek Companies and Presidio Residential Capital announce the opening of Afton Way, a $11.8 million, five-acre infill community with eight homes in Carlsbad. Pre-sales have begun and homebuyers will have a chance to tour the new neighborhood this summer.
This new residential community offers four single-level and four two-story homes that range in size from 2,941 to 3,851 square feet with 10,000- to- 29,000-square-foot lots (average lot size is 15,000 square feet). The floorplans include four to six bedrooms with 3.5 to 4.5 baths. The community includes 53,500 square feet of open space and one casita that complies with the Affordable Housing Act. The enclave of homes is located in a small cul-de-sac with panoramic views from all lots.
The new community is located at 2200 Afton Way. Afton Way is a joint venture project with Presidio Residential Capital, a San Diego-based real estate investment company. For more information, contact sales manager Marissa Montano at 619-318-1944 or marissa@fitproperties.com.
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Registrar of Voters Reports Missing
Mail Ballots for the June 5 Primary
The Registrar of Voters is asking mail ballot voters to check their mail ballot packets for the June 5 Gubernatorial Primary Election. His office has received about a dozen reports of missing mail ballots in the election packets.
About 1,500 mail ballots could be affected. And though that is a small number compared to the number of total mail ballot voters, Registrar of Voters Michael Vu wants to make sure that every registered voter who requested a mail ballot gets one.
Nearly 1.1 million mail ballots were sent to county voters last week. When some mail ballot voters reported a problem with their packets, the issue was traced to the vendor’s mechanical inserter equipment. The problem has been corrected but the Registrar asks mail ballot voters to double-check their packets.
“If you find there is no ballot inside or you have two cards, give us a call,” said Vu. “We will suspend the packet and re-issue you a new one.”
If you experience a problem with your mail ballot, call the Registrar of Voters office at (858) 565-5800.
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Cubic Corp Forms Partnership
with 4C Strategies for Training
Cubic Corporation announced its Cubic Global Defense business division and 4C Strategies have formed a new strategic partnership to cooperate globally in the development and delivery of next-generation training and readiness capabilities to shared customers.
“We’re pleased to continue our partnership with 4C Strategies as this new agreement builds on previous successful collaborations between the two companies, particularly in Australia,” said Dave Buss, president of Cubic Global Defense. “Our partnership will ultimately deliver improved value for our current customers and customers of future opportunities.”
Under the agreement, Cubic and 4C Strategies will explore opportunities to further integrate the companies’ complementary products, services and solutions. The partnership will provide open and scalable training solutions with a focus on customer outcomes rather than a “one-size-fits-all” proprietary approach.
The companies anticipate improved aggregation between quantitative data generated within training simulation applications, such as Cubic’s CATS Metrix, and the qualitative assessments made by observers and stored in 4C Strategies’ EXONAUT Software Suite, will enable significant advances in performance-based training.
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Personnel Announcements
TSA Construction Adds 2 Project Managers and 2 Superintendents
TSA Construction, a general contracting company based in San Diego, welcomes two project managers and two superintendents to its team. The expansion is a result of growth in the company and industry.
TSA Construction’s four new employees are as:
- Andrew Doyle, project manager: With nearly 15 years of experience, Doyle has worked on a number of projects throughout his career as both project manager and director of construction operations. He has extensive experience in apartment new construction and rehabilitation.
- Sean Kelly, project manager: Kelly has worked on multiple projects in the construction industry, including federal projects, over the last two decades, as both a project manager and construction manager.
- J.R. Mansfield, superintendent: Mansfield has 12 years of experience in the field, including four years as project manager, three years as quality control manager, and eight years as superintendent.
- Dean Holmstrom, superintendent: Holmstrom has nearly 40 years of industry experience, during which he spent 25 as superintendent where he was responsible for overseeing the construction of multiple projects, including tenant improvements, multi-family, and federal work.
