PET Food Processing - December 2018 - 20

PLANT PROFILE

As a co-manufacturer,
Hampshire focuses
on producing pet
treats in innovative
formats that other
processors may not
be able to make.

2,000 lbs. Now, Hampshire can run test batches as small
as 50 lbs. "Before, when a customer wanted to try a new
formula or product, the cost impact to both our customer and our business was very large because we'd have to
take down one of our systems," Larson explains. "We designed our pilot plant to mimic what we had in regular
production but on a smaller scale. By offering this service,
we can now run a 50-lb. test batch. If, as a result of that
test batch, the customer wants more green flecks or to
see a larger particle size of an ingredient, we can make
those changes quickly."
With 375 ingredients in stock, Hampshire can be
flexible in the creative process, but it's not just the
formulation that is critical. Product shape is especially
important with rotary-molded treats. Larson says the
company has a lot of internal expertise in designing the
right shape to fit the formula, which is an important part
of processing effectively and getting desired results in the
finished treat. Larson says Baker Perkins, Grand Rapids,
Michigan, is a key part of this process. "They have been
a partner with Hampshire since we started the business
and they understand what it is that we actually need
from a die roll and from a rotary moulder," Larson explains. "They're quick to address our needs and they've
offered competitive pricing for our customers. Most of
our customers purchase their own die rolls. We're the
intermediary in that and Baker Perkins has really taken
good care of our customers as well as Hampshire."

A dog's best friend
Hampshire primarily produces dog treats, both baked
and cold-extruded. The company also manufactures full
feeding dog diets, small animal diets and treats, and in
the past has made cat food and cat treats but doesn't currently. "When we started the business, our plan was to
produce the standard stock, private-label, hard, crunchystyle dog biscuits," Larson says. "We quickly found out
that in order to gain new market share and grow the
business, we had to do something new and different.
We were one of the very first producers of no corn, no
wheat, no soy. We had to learn how to replace the standard wheat formulas with other based grains that could
withstand the baking process. We had to learn about

PET FOOD PROCESSING | December 2018 | www.petfoodprocessing.net

gelatinization and how to make the treats withstand
transfer through the process and to gain the durability they needed without the binder that everybody was
using at the time and create new treats in a new format.
That was a big step for us."
After the company mastered no corn, no wheat, no soy,
next came a demand for grain-free and the formulation
challenges that accompanied it. Hampshire's mainstay
was still centered around hard, crunchy treats until the
company's growth slowed down a bit around 2012. "We
decided that we needed to add different formats," Larson
says. "If we were going to see a flattening of the crunchy
treat style of dog biscuits then we would need to broaden
our scope and our market for our customers. That's when
we started producing soft bakes and the cold-form meatstyle treats. That has allowed us to regenerate revenue
growth and expand to where we are today."
Where the company is today in terms of size is not
information Hampshire shares. Annual volume will
have to be left up to one's imagination, but Hampshire's
management team does share details about its processing facility, including the number of processing lines it
operates and some of its valued vendor relationships.
The company operates a 291,000-sq.-ft. processing
facility on nearly 18 acres in an industrial park near the
intersection of I-44 and I-49 in the Southwest corner of
Missouri. Hampshire currently produces more than 300
products on four processing lines.
The company mills nearly all incoming ingredients
with a Bliss hammermill system to ensure uniform
particle size. Hampshire sources flour from a vendor
the company says has been an important partner from
the beginning. "The original core group of employees
who started Hampshire knew we would need a reliable
source of flour," Weaver says. "We partnered with Aguiar
Ag Group (AAG) in Kansas City, a wholesaler of rice
and wheat by-products. They took on the responsibility
of procuring, delivering and maintaining inventory
levels for Hampshire for the two types of flour that we
were using at the time. AAG knew that our demand had
peaks and valleys, as did the supply, so they flattened
out the supply for us and stored it at their expense. They
have been an amazing partner."

http://www.petfoodprocessing.net

PET Food Processing - December 2018

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of PET Food Processing - December 2018