![]() ![]() The pet treat plant was designed to be as flexible as possible, which includes having a packaging distribution system that feeds, separates and weighs product before they are fed directly into packages. Production at the Perham plant includes both company-owned brands and co-manufactured products for partners. The six branded lines feature dry, wet and baked foods, biscuits, jerky and semi-moist treats for dogs and cats. Tuffy’s Pet Food, Inc., is now part of a 16-acre campus in Perham, featuring a 600,000-square-foot processing, packaging and warehousing facility, which now manufactures NutriSource, NutriSource PureVita, NutriSource Element Series and NutriSource Choice products for independent pet specialty retail stores and Supreme, Tuffy’s and Tuffy’s Gold brands, primarily for grocery stores. One of his earliest accomplishments was helping to develop the company’s flagship brand, NutriSource. Not wanting to see the pet food facility close and having around 150 employees in the community out of work, Kenny bought back the company and Tuffy’s Pet Food lived on.Īround the same time, Kenny’s son Charlie - the third generation of the Nelson family - joined KLN Family Brands and started to work on the pet food side of the business. At the time, Kenny was running the salty snack and candy business in Perham. After changing ownership several times through the years, Tuffy’s Pet Foods was on the cusp of shuttering in 2001, when the owners at the time threatened to close the plant in Perham, Minn. The Nelsons moved away from the pet food game in the ‘70s after selling Tuffy’s to new owners. KLN Enterprises was created in 1995 and Tuffy’s Pet Food, Kenny’s Candy & Confection and Barrel O’ Fun all became separate operating divisions. By 1987, the company added candy to the lineup with the formation of Kenny’s Candy & Confection (named after founder Darrell “Tuffy” Nelson’s son, Kenny, who later served as chief executive officer of the family business). The family adjusted its business plans year after year following its start in 1964.Īfter starting in the pet food business in the ‘60s, the company added salty and sweet snacks to its repertoire when Barrel O’ Fun Snack Food opened in 1973. ![]() Putting canning in a treat facility, when it wasn’t the original plan, would never have been possible without built-in flexibility.”įlexibility has been part of the Nelson family’s mantra long before the move to Delano. “What we planned to do with this facility and what we did are totally different,” said Mark Sailer, engineering director, KLN Family Brands. Flexibility has been the name of the game from Day 1 at Tuffy’s Treat Company. None of this would have been possible if the Delano facility had not been built with flexibility at the forefront of its design. After operating for just a few months, plans to add a canning line to the Delano plant started to develop.
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