Carol Jones-Adams (shown here with Lucy) and her husband and business partner, Bob Adams, started making cherry-based functional dog treats after using tart cherry concentrate in their own food.
A growing body of research shows that in humans, tart
cherries can act as an antioxidant and help people suffering from various conditions
and forms of inflammation.
“Our family found relief from arthritis and gout through
cherry concentrate, and that got the ball rolling,” says Carol Jones-Adams,
describing how her functional treat company, Overby Farm, was born. “Working
with researchers at Michigan State University (MSU) who patented their
anti-inflammatory discoveries in tart cherries, then with veterinarians there, really
helped us. Our own desire to produce something beneficial for our pets was the
‘aha’ that began it all in 2004.”
The fact that Jones-Adams and her family have a farm in
Leelanau County, Michigan, USA—also known as the “cherry capital of the world”—was another contributing
factor. At the time, she was trying to ensure that her teenagers, who wouldn’t eat
breakfast, still received good nutrition by making them smoothies with cherries
and other healthy substances. Soon she extended the blending of ingredients to making
bone-shaped treats for the family’s dogs, Abigail and Lucy.
Jones-Adams and her husband and business partner, Bob Adams,
were so impressed with how their dogs reacted to the treats that they started discussing
taking them to the market. He was working with MSU on another project at the
time, Jones-Adams says, and found out about the university’s patents with tart
cherries.
“We licensed the patents for the companion animal market and
started investigating how we could work with the veterinary department at MSU,”
Jones-Adams says. “And we started formulating products and came out with Hip
Bones as our first product about five years ago.”
It's the closest to the tree that we can get.Under the logo on the Overby Farm website, you’ll see a
phrase that sums up the company’s stake in the pet treats market: “an
invitation to natural joint health.” Besides the Hip Bones functional dog
treats, Overby Farm also offers a smaller version, Hip Bones Jr.; Hip Flex,
chewable supplements for dogs that include cherries, blueberries and
cranberries; and Hip Flex Feline, chewable nibs for cats. All the products contain
other functional ingredients such as flax seed, fish oil and glucosamine.
“What we try to do is have our lines work well together,”
says Jones-Adams. “So, for example, the Hip Flex supplement works very well fed
in conjunction with Hip Bones. The idea came as we started learning about
processing parameters; we realized that anytime you bake a treat, you’re going
to lose a certain amount of the active ingredients. We do gear up the actives
with our baked treats, but we also wanted to have a more efficacious, pure
supplement type product, and that’s when we came out with Hip Flex. It starts
with whole frozen cherries, then adds the cherry concentrate and goes from
there—the closest to the tree that we can get.”
That approach to the
market has paid off. Though still just a very small family business—after
graduating from MSU, son David joined the company in 2008 as sales
manager—Overby Farm will exceed US$1 million in sales in the US alone in 2011,
Jones-Adams says, the first time the company has hit that mark. “We feel like
we have had our nose to the grindstone since the beginning,” she adds. “We’ve
been approaching this as the little engine that could. We really try to
thoroughly investigate everything before we do it, but it makes us move at a
slower pace. And so far we’ve been fine with that.
“Now we’re ready to take
the company to the next level,” Jones-Adams continues. “We believe we’re in a
transitional phase right now, that we’ve learned about the industry in the last
five years, we’ve learned a lot about formulating and working with the
necessary players in the marketplace.”
After nearly a year of R&D , Overby Farm is preparing to launch a range of new products that will double its current offerings (shown here) within the next 12 months.
After nearly a year of R&D and
trials, the company is preparing to launch a range of new products that will
double its offerings within the next 12 months:
- A wheat-free version of Hip Bones;
- A line of Veggie bones; and
- New packaging for Hip Flex and Hip Flex Feline
(in bottles, in addition to the pouches they already come in).
We’ve been approaching this as the little engine that could.The new Hip Bones are intended for
dogs with allergies to wheat, Jones-Adams says. “We’ve kept wheat in Hip
Bones—it was part of the original formulation—because with tart cherry, you
need some sort of ‘stick factor’ to keep the treat together. But we recognize
there’s a large percentage of the animal population that’s allergic to wheat or
has some type of reaction. So it’s a request we’ve heard in the marketplace,
and we’re trying to respond to that.”
In developing the Veggie Bones,
the emphasis has been on cruciferous vegetables like broccoli and cauliflower,
focusing on recommendations from the nutritionist at MSU who advises the
company. “We want to make sure it’s a very ‘green’ bone,” Jones-Adams says. “Cruciferous
vegetables are the gist of it, and I think we’ll be adding a few others in
there for fun, for health, like pumpkin and sweet potato.”
Overby Farm has an exclusive
relationship with a global fruit and vegetable global processor in northern
Michigan. “He’s fantastic and has been moving down a path toward human nutraceuticals.
We are the companion animal compatriot to that,” Jones-Adams says. “As we see
his movement in this area, as we see people becoming more educated about what
nutrition can do for them and their pets, as the science and the information keep
becoming more available—and through our work with MSU and some of the other
like minds we have joined with—it’s absolutely incredible what’s available and
what we can do. Our ideas for formulating with fruit and vegetable streams are just through the roof.
“It’s time now to get up
on a mountain and start shouting, have people really know about us,” she
continues. “We’re ready to start rolling at a faster pace now. We’re ready to
launch, almost like a relaunch, into a whole new level of the business. We’re
excited.”
Jones-Adams is equally
enthusiastic about the market overall. “We have absolutely enjoyed all the
people in the pet industry, like no other industry either of us has been in.
It’s just been delightful. People are generally happy, they’re honest and I
think pretty altruistic about what they’re trying to do. We love it.”
That’s why she believes in
dealing one-on-one with distributors, retailers, even consumers; every e-mail
that comes in through the Overby Farm website goes into Jones-Adams’ inbox, and
she responds personally, she says. “Whoever you are and whatever role in this
food chain you play or however you handle our product, we want to know
personally what you think. And we take all that information and put it into our
planning matrix to decide how we can continue to improve and grow. Because I
think that really is the way to not only survive, but that’s the way to thrive
in this marketplace and particularly in this industry, which is, thank god, a
very heartfelt industry.
It’s time now to get up on a mountain and start shouting, have people really know about us.“The beautiful thing about dealing with people one-on-one,” she
continues,” is not only does it work, but it’s a delightful way to go about
your day-to-day activity and life. It’s wonderful and it’s fun.”