Company
History
The Honest Kitchen Timeline
- 1997
Company Founders Lucy & Charlie Postins arrived in the USA from Britain, filled with optimism at the prospects in this foreign land.
- 2000
Mosi, a Rhodesian Ridgeback puppy, joined the family. He ate the kibbled food made by the pet food company where Lucy worked at that time – but Lucy’s interest in the vast benefits of home cooked and raw foods for pets, grew day by day. Lucy began making all Mosi’s food herself. The kitchen was covered in pureed broccoli, carrots and various animal parts. The search for a solution began.
- 2001
Raw ingredients suppliers began shipping samples to the kitchen of a little house in Pacific Beach, California, to be blended according to various secret recipe combinations. Mosi was now consuming dehydrated raw food full time, in the form of the prototype recipe for Verve. The kitchen was a little less messy. A prolonged search for a human food manufacturer who would agree to make this crazy, gourmet food for pets on a commercial scale, paid off. Every ingredient supplier signed an affidavit of assurance that their products were human edible, to allow entry to the manufacturing plant.
- 2002
The decision was made to offer Mosi’s healthy foods to other local pets. Mosi’s friends began to try it. They liked it lots. The company was properly founded and incorporated that summer. The web site was set up, and one fine fall morning when the online order system underwent its initial testing, Mosi was stunned to learn that a customer in Maryland had beaten his Mummy to it, and placed an order for Verve before the test order was even completed!
The first production batch of Verve was 2000 lbs. Soon, it was almost all gone.
Each batch produced was a little larger than the one before. Many of the customers who ordered in those early times are still valued clients to this day. That’s something that makes us really jolly proud.
- 2003
The people had spoken. They wanted a diet like Verve but without the grains. Force was borne (once Mosi had given his seal of approval).
- 2004
Embark was launched, the company’s inaugural diet for all life stages. Now puppies could eat this food and many need never eat kibble again! Lucy & Charlie’s first daughter was borne and the first employee and her Dalmatian were hired – and she’s still with us!
- 2005
The Honest Kitchen launched its first cat food, Prowl, as well as Preference, a dehydrated foundation diet for dogs – just veggies, fruit and nothing else.
The Federal FDA provided a formal statement of no objection to The Honest Kitchen, permitting the company to use the term “Human Grade” on its product labels. Rescued from Northern California and brought to San Diego by THK staff, first class, on a plane - Harry the cat joined the team.
- 2006
Thrive was launched, by popular demand. Nuzzles duck and cherry cookies also started rolling off the production line and into kitchens everywhere. More staff were added to help keep up with demand. The average blend was now 20,000 lbs.
- 2007
A legal battle with the department of agriculture began with that agency refused to grant The Honest Kitchen a license to sell its products in their state. The department argued that the term ‘human grade’ on the product labels might prove confusing to customers who would be unable to determine if the products were for their pets or themselves. The company sued and won. Now people in that state could just go to a local store to buy the food, rather than drive over state lines or have it shipped to friends for pickup!
The company launched its new eco-friendly packaging solution. Just one way of making a commitment to the earth that provides us all those healthy raw ingredients.
- 2008
Eleven human and seven canine employees now help to keep things running smoothly at THK. Meetings at the local dog parks, a sense of doing a little something to make pets’ lives better everywhere – and taste tests galore – make life in our Kitchen just a little bit different than the usual run-of-the-mill place of work.
