Hello from your friends at Small Pet Select! We know 2020 hasn't been an easy year for most; however, we wanted to thank you for your continued support by recapping this year's highlights. These pawsitive achievements wouldn't have been possible without our valued customers 🥰. Without further ado, here goes our first year in review...
Abigail
Abigail, who shares what life is like through a rabbit's eyes, does her best to make the world a better place for bunnies. She's taught us that no matter what size you are-2 pounds in her case-you can make a difference. Abigail launched two t-shirt and a calendar fundraisers this year. All fundraising profits enabled her to donate to rescue bunnies.
📷: Maurice Liang
Did you know Small Pet Select is committed to helping animal rescues of all sizes? We donate a part of our profit every time you buy to a rescue in our give-back program. Additionally, we've made it easy for you to support your favorite rescue. Using our Rescue Locator, simply choose your favorite. If you don't see your rescue listed, please ask them to add themselves to our Ambassador program via this link.
Belinda, Spokesrabbit
Abigail's boss, Belinda, was also incredibly busy this year like always. While we were introduced to her artistic talents in late 2019, they were featured again in the co-working blog and her blog about the blue moon.
Additionally, Belinda created a bonded pair campaign for Valentine's Day and successfully created ads to promote the new timothy-alfalfa combo box she invented.
Finally, she ran a $150 gift card giveaway. When looking at her year in review, this is pretty fantastic stuff, but typical for our beloved Spokesrabbit.
Chickens
We're not sure what came first… did we start a full line of chicken products, or did Bill, our CEO, get chickens?
📷: Bill Gordon
It doesn't matter who came first. What does matter is YOU made our chicken offerings incredibly successful. In particular, the Pine Bedding Chicken Shavings sold like hotcakes.
Comm/Marketing Team Changes
Farewell, Wolf...Introducing Naamah!
📷: Wolf
We thoroughly enjoyed having Wolf on our team for over four years. However, it was time for her to move into semi-retirement so she could focus on search and rescue with her pupskers, Fergus and Henry. Since leaving, she's mastered the Instapot, learned to crochet potholders, and finally cleaned the attic!
Naamah is from Ellensburg, Washington a.k.a. Small Pet Select HQ, and has a background in digital marketing. As she comes from a farming family, she was excited to join the Small Pet Select team. We're grateful to have driving our Comm/Marketing Team hay truck and our team of seven.
📷: Naamah
Sparkling, New Instagram Stories
Have you checked our Instagram page lately? If you haven't, you should, as we've made some massive changes after hiring a social media expert. See these circles in the middle?
We've put curated stories in each one. Additionally, we comb social media every day for pawrents tagging their sweet babies with #smallpetselect. If you do that, you just might see your pet featured. Finally, if you click the "View Shop" button, you can get to our online store, lickety-split.
Welcome, Saskia
With two rabbit writers on staff, we didn't want to leave our guinea pig friends out. Fortunately, we didn't have to go very far to find Saskia from Los Angeles Guinea Pig Rescue. As our new guinea pig spokesperson, she wants to make a difference in the lives of cavies and their caretakers all over the globe. We wheeked with joy when she joined our team.
International Operations Expansion
International? Yes, Small Pet Select is an international company! We just transitioned to our second warehouse in the United Kingdom (UK). It's 9500 square feet and expertly managed by our colleague James.
James is supervised by his canine sons, Midnight and Marley. Don't they look like they're doing a fantastic job?
James and sons have a new full team with strengths in various areas covering warehouse management, admin, customer service, and batching. The larger warehouse reduces the chances of products being out of stock. Additionally, all of our sales platforms run through one shipping program. We've got a holistic view of all our shipments and that enables us to keep a close eye on shipping costs. To save costs and container space, we now source 90% of our packaging within the UK. Plus, our pelleted bedding, oyster shell, chicken grits, and pea flakes also originate in the UK. Speaking of shipping containers, the UK warehouse receives regular containers of bedding every four weeks. Every five weeks, containers of hay/treats/toys arrive. Both containers come straight from our American warehouses.
Warehouse Moves
Not to be outdone by our UK colleagues, when compiling their year in review, our American warehouses had some significant changes in 2020, too!
Washington State Warehouse
Duncan, our WA Warehouse Manager, has both the old and new warehouses operating, increasing the size by 14,000 square feet. The new warehouse also has a full kitchen! Additionally, he has 19 full-time warehouse employees.
Kentucky Warehouse
Josh and his Louisville team added about 5000 square feet with 1000 square feet of additional office space. They now employ 14 full-time and 4 part-time employees, almost double what they had this time last year.
To meet demand, both warehouses implemented two shifts running Monday-Friday.
Proud of our New Products
Our new Recycled Pelleted Paper Cat Litter is purrrfect for cats. Your other small mammals will love it too as it's totally safe for rabbits, rats, gerbils, hamsters, mice, and ferrets. Unlike different pelleted paper cat litters on the market, Small Pet Select's is made from 100% non-toxic recycled paper. Guess what else? It's safe for our planet. Small Pet Select is committed to minimizing its environmental footprint-both with our products and our packaging.
Small Pet Select is always responsive to customer requests. Therefore, we're pleased to offer non-GMO and soy-free pelleted food for our guinea pig and lagomorph customers. Like our hay, hand-selected by our owner, all the ingredients are sourced from the Pacific Northwest. Although unlimited hay is the most essential part of your bun and cavy's diet, this vitamin and mineral-enriched food is a fantastic way to supplement their dietary needs.
As we say goodbye to 2020, we hope you enjoyed our first year in review blog. We know as a small, family-owned business, again, we could not have had this success without YOU…our valued supporters. We look forward to serving you in 2021 and welcome your comments and suggestions. As always, please email them to hoomans@smallpetselect.com or comment on our socials.
Love and Happy New Year,
Team Small Pet Select
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