The Next Phase
Merrell worked long hours and did what it took to make the move happen. Spending nights at the new plant in Fresno and nights at the old plant in Indiana during the transition created an insane challenge, but it worked. Plato ramped up on inventory in Indiana before the move to ensure there was product to ship during downtime, and documentation and SOPs guaranteed the smoothest possible transfer to production in Fresno.
“I was sleeping in what is now the server closet,” he says. “I sent my wife off to my parents’ vacation home and I just basically camped out here at the plant working with people and staying overnight, babysitting the dryers. It was insane.”
In essence, the move meant starting over in Fresno, particularly from a personnel standpoint. Merrell’s familiarity with the city also contributed to making the move work. People that he trusted, and the ability to get things done, reassured him the move to Fresno was the right decision.
“Fresno is a really good town and we’re in a good location,” he says. “We have a lot of access to suppliers and contractors. It is very business friendly.”
With help from the county supervisor, Merrell got things done as quickly as possible. However, he did spend the first few months training people for every position at Plato.
“We moved into a 30,000-sq.-ft. facility, which I thought would last us a few years and about nine months later we expanded and doubled again,” Merrell says. “So, we moved into the next 30,000-sq.-ft. suite less than a year later and we’ve been growing.”
Plato Pet Treats has grown to more than four times the size it was at the time of the move and gone from $4 million in annual sales to $17 million if it hits its target for the year – and Merrell says, “We’re on track to do so.” Currently at 60,000 sq. ft., Merrell has negotiated an option for another 25,000 sq. ft. “We’re not sure if or when we’re going to be doing that,” he says, “but we have that ability.”
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Production and Processes
Plato Pet Treats employs 85 people for three production shifts and two packaging shifts. “We have a dehydration process that takes some time. We can out pack what we can produce from a capacity standpoint right now,” Merrell says.
The company processes its chicken, salmon, duck, turkey and secondary ingredients into 20 products – with approximately six new products coming out this year – in various package sizes. Bites, strips, meat sticks and others represent Plato’s offerings of sustainable, premium dog treats. Merrell’s roles at the the company he worked for previously gave him valuable insight on operations, including sourcing raw material.
“I knew there were some pretty amazing fresh and interesting meat ingredients that we had access to,” Merrell says. “Especially at a higher price point that could be sold as a premium product.”
Plato uses cutting edge technology – a lot of the same companies manufacture the equipment used by Plato and processors producing foods for human consumption – to produce its high-end treats and focuses as much on the palatability as anything else.
“We have large commercial dehydrators, industrial grade dehydrators,” Merrell says. “We dehydrate the product at a lower temperature so we’re not heating it up as much as a traditional oven process. So, it retains a lot of the palatability in the product. It doesn’t cook out all the good stuff and retains a lot of the semi moist texture and it just makes the palatability of the product phenomenal.”
Currently, Plato sells mostly to distributors, but does work with retail customers such as Petco. The company sells to other retailers and chains, as well, throughout the country and has international customers. “We do all of our own warehousing and then we ship from here to our customers across North America and even across Asia Pacific,” Merrell says.
