Pet food maker Spot & Tango is embarking on a $20 million expansion that will double production capacity and increase its workforce by 50%, just four years after opening its Lehigh Valley manufacturing facility.
The company, based in New York City, produces fresh dog food made with the same quality ingredients used in food for human consumption. The dog food is sold online directly to consumers.
“We've had such a great experience here,” said Dylan Munro, Spot & Tango’s Chief Operating Officer. “We have a really strong team, relatively low turnover. It's really convenient for our headquarters. What's great is we can have our team in New York visit our team in Allentown and vice versa on a regular basis, and that allows us to build culture. We love the area.”
The expansion in Upper Macungie Township will double Spot & Tango’s production capacity within a year or two and increase the workforce from about 100 to about 150.
Sales are growing 60-70% year-over-year, Munro said, attributing the demand to Spot & Tango’s marketing efforts, the ease and prevalence of online shopping, referrals from satisfied customers, and more people treating their pets as members of their families.
“People are focused on feeding their dogs better,” Munro said.
Lehigh Valley is a hub of manufacturing, and pet food manufacturing stands out.
The region is among the Top 15% of manufacturing markets in the U.S., with more than 700 manufacturers producing a collective output of $9 billion. That represents 16% of the Lehigh Valley’s Gross Domestic Product. Nationally, manufacturing is 11% of GDP. Employment in manufacturing in the Lehigh Valley has grown three times as fast as the U.S. since 2010. Freshpet, a healthy pet food company that began manufacturing in the Lehigh Valley in 2013 and expanded in 2022, recently announced another expansion with its first cold storage facility in Lehigh Valley Industrial Park VII in Bethlehem.
Food and beverage manufacturing is one of the high-value sectors targeted for growth in Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation’s Strategic Plan.
About 35% of pet food manufacturing jobs in Pennsylvania are located here, and the region has 13 times the number of jobs as the national average. In addition to Spot & Tango, companies that operate in the Lehigh Valley include Freshpet and Nestle Purina.
Spot & Tango’s expansion was supported by local partners including Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corporation (LVEDC) and PPL Corporation, which worked to meet the company’s power needs.
"Spot & Tango's expansion is a great example of what's possible when innovative companies, regional economic development partners, and utility teams work together to support growth,” said Jason Hunt, PPL’s Manager of Business & Economic Development.
“Our team worked closely with Spot & Tango, LVEDC, and local partners to understand the company's growth plans and help identify solutions that would support its expansion. We're proud to play a role in helping successful manufacturers grow in the Lehigh Valley, creating jobs and investment that benefit the entire region."
Spot & Tango was co-founded by Munro and CEO Russell Breuer, whose wife, Molly, cooked homemade food for their dog.
“Molly had always been cooking for their dog, Jack, like her mom always cooked for their dogs growing up. It kind of had been part of the family tradition,” Munro said.
As people they knew asked for the recipe or requested to buy what she was making, they started a part-time business, cooking in their apartment in New York and selling from a few local pet food shops. As demand grew, they decided to go full-time, with Breuer and Munro teaming up.
Munro grew up near Toronto with an entrepreneurial background, as his family owned a music school where he would teach drums and run summer camps. He studied at Harvard University and worked in retail and direct-to-consumer and e-commerce businesses.
They started producing in New York, raising capital to grow, building a supply chain, and scaling up production. In 2020, they launched UnKibble, Spot & Tango’s main brand.
“We made enough of it to start that we thought would last for three to four months, and we sold out in four days,” Munro said.
Spot & Tango continued to expand, using contract manufacturers, but couldn’t produce enough to meet demand. They decided to open their own factory, initially looking for sites in New York and northern New Jersey.
Then they found the Lehigh Valley.
“We learned about what an amazing hub it is of logistics and distribution, also manufacturing, a fantastic labor pool, great properties, much less expensive lease prices per square foot,” Munro said. “We felt like it was sort of an amazing discovery, and we were so excited to find it.”
In 2022, Spot & Tango opened a 66,700-square-foot facility in Upper Macungie.
LVEDC provided assistance and information to Spot & Tango during their site selection process, and the state provided $438,000 in grants.
Four years later, with demand for UnKibble still growing, the space adjacent to Spot & Tango became available, making room for the company to expand within the same building, adding another 20,000 square feet.