Gummy supplement specialist SmartyPants enters pet space with SmartyPaws line
The line of chewy supplements comes in six varieties, dosages tailored to a dog’s age (Adult or Senior) and size (Small, Medium, or Large Breed).
Among the ingredients are shellfish-sourced glucosamine HCL, porcine-sourced chondroitin sulfate, organic kelp powder, organic chia seed powder, omega-3s (EPA and DHA), Bacillus coagulans, and methylsulfonylmethane.
With the SmartyPaws line launch, eight-year-old SmartyPants is now a contender in the growing pet supplement market, which is worth $1.8 billion, according to data from the National Animal Supplement Council.
The 2017-2018 American Pet Product Association National Pet Owners Survey found that more than 60 million households in the US own one or more dogs, one reason behind why SmartyPants’ foray into animal health is with these four-legged friends.
"At SmartyPants, we're obsessed with two things: Developing the best science-based nutrition, and our dogs,” said Courtney Nichols Gould, co-founder and co-CEO of SmartyPants Vitamins.
“Our dog Pig was the third member of our team when we launched the company, so it was only natural for us to combine our two great loves and make a supplement for our four-legged family members."
SmartyPants’ independent rise
Launched in 2010, SmartyPants is now one of the leading gummy vitamin brands in the country, available in mass retailers like Target and Walmart, supplement retailers like GNC and the Vitamin Shoppe, pharmacies like CVS and Walgreens, and natural channel food stores Whole Foods and Sprouts.
(For now, products in the new SmartyPaws line are available online through the SmartyPants website or Amazon, according to a press release from the company).
It built its empire with the help of crowdfunding on the platform CircleUp, securing $4.7 million by 2014. At the time, the amount was the largest capital raise accomplished through the platform.
The company made its first venture outside of the gummy space this year with the launch of mineral chews. “Minerals is a huge category but it’s not growing because we haven’t seen much innovation on the mineral side,” Nichols Gould told NutraIngredients-USA in an interview earlier this year.
The company favored a chew instead of a gummy to cater to consumers looking to reduce their sugar intake. More importantly, chews are a better delivery vehicle than a gummy for minerals, which are notoriously difficult to work with in that format.
