The Reality of Growth: One Step Forward, Thirty Steps a Day
If there’s one thing about owning your own business, it’s knowing that things almost never go exactly the way you plan.
From piping and gas tanks, to cooler rooms and compliance binders — every upgrade comes with a steep (and relentless) learning curve. As a fresh dog food kitchen, growth isn’t just about cooking more meals; it’s about getting every process right. Many hairnets, labels, and bagging sessions later, we’ve finally started to settle into our new kitchen.
What used to take five steps to complete in our old space now takes closer to thirty. Moving from a single-storey lot to a double-storey factory has quite literally tripled the number of steps we take each day. It’s more walking, more coordination, and more adjustment than we anticipated — all part of scaling a fresh cooked dog food operation.
But strangely enough, it’s also exciting.
There’s a new bounce in everyone’s step — a renewed sense of purpose. While a few customers unfortunately felt the effects of our move through delayed orders (thank you for your patience), today marks a major turning point. Our fresh dog food kitchen in Malaysia has expanded from 1,000 square feet to nearly three times that. Storage space has more than doubled, and our cooking capacity for fresh frozen dog food can now increase in a way that supports real, sustainable growth.
Most importantly, this upgrade was necessary to put us firmly on the path toward DVS and MeSTI certification — an essential step for any fresh dog food manufacturer committed to food safety and transparency.
From process flow and cross-contamination control, to cleanliness protocols and bagging meals in a temperature-controlled cold room, almost everything about how we prepare our fresh dog food has changed. And every change has been for the better.
We’re about 80% settled in, with a little more to go. But we made one thing very clear from the start: when it comes to fresh dog food, the kitchen always comes first and we are business as usual!
Stay tuned for more updates as we continue this journey.