July 24 2005

'Pup-Corn' And Pets

Pupperware, Like Tupperware, Caters To Invited Guests With Similar Interests

By PAUL MARKS

The pet pamper index just went up a notch.

Sure, dogs and cats today get everything from cashmere coats to chiropractors from their doting owners.

Now they can have those things and more, lavished on them at a sales party patterned after Mary Kay, Amway or Tupperware.

It's called a "pupperware" party.

Product parties featuring everything from rhinestone collars to cologne are the latest thing, hosted by independent distributors of Shure Pets - or "pet consultants," as the Chicago-based company insists on calling its more than 600 independent dealers.

The 2-year-old company has moved into Connecticut over the past year, and reports growing sales.

Pat DeAngelo got a kick out of her first Shure Pets party, which she attended the evening of July 1 at her daughter's house in Winsted. Her Jack Russell terrier, Mikko, went along.

Mikko got a jaunty red neckerchief for $9. They also took home a $15 bottle of "Aromutt Therapy Spritzer." In plain talk, that's doggie cologne.

"To help her smell nice between baths," said DeAngelo, of Torrington. "She had a wonderful time getting into everything."

Drawing on the playbook of longstanding home-based retailers, Shure Pets takes things a step further. Invitations are addressed not just to pet owners but also to their beloved animals.

Company founder Andrew Shure said he thinks multilevel marketing, in which his "pet consultants" can augment their profits by spreading the business to friends and claiming a percentage of their sales, offers "a very win-win situation."

Before founding Shure Pets, he operated a specialty toy business with his brother. He came up with the pet party idea 2½ years ago, after he tired of fighting for shelf space against the big toymakers.

To sell the pet products, Shure said, one need not fill up a spare bedroom with inventory, although some dealers do stock up to make presentations at pet expos. Orders collected at parties can be placed by e-mail and shipped directly to customers. Products can be viewed on an online catalog, although orders can only be placed through dealers.

"Our only requirement here is a passion for pets," Shure said. "These are people who really believe in their pets, and they would only endorse a product that they really believe in."

Which makes a party setting just natural, he said.

It's clear, though, who is being indulged by the all the gifts, garb and goofy gadgets. It's not the pets.

"You get 10 animal lovers in a room," said Jennifer Iacino of Winsted, who organized the party, "and no one thinks you're crazy when you talk about them as though they're your children."

People quickly look beyond the basic collars and leashes to the whimsical: $45 hooded sweat shirts, plaster-of-Paris paw-print kits and glistening rhinestone "necklaces." Even $45 "scrapbooking kits" and $15 "Furry Angel" memorial candles for the dearly departed.

Iacino, 31, has two black mixed-breed dogs, a shorthaired cat and a pinto gelding named Zac. About a year ago, she became one of the first Shure Pets dealers in Connecticut. Since then, she said, her customer base has grown to more than 100, while the company's product line has expanded to about 200 items.

New dealers pay $99 for a "New Puppy on the Block Starter Kit" and get basic guidance from the person who recruited them. Shure said he or another of the company's four full-time employees are available for phone consultations every Tuesday night, and there is an online "chat room" where pet consultants can powwow.

Dealers keep 25 percent of their sales at first, and a get higher percentage as they recruit people to work beneath them.

Therese Nadeau of Glastonbury joined Shure Pets in March. She said the business was a natural for her because she has a congenital muscular disease and uses a wheelchair and a service dog to get around. At the University of Connecticut, Nadeau trains people with physical and cognitive disabilities. A friend there suggested she look into Shure Pets.

Now, she hosts parties along with Sassy, her black Labrador retriever, who goes with her virtually everywhere.

"I consider her my partner in the business, too," Nadeau said.

Nadeau has organized sales parties hosted by nonprofit groups, including a preschool, which get to keep a percentage of sales. Sassy gets treated to yogurt "Pup-corn," fancy emu oil shampoo and the occasional Aromutt Therapy Spritzer.

Shure said his consultants are not the type to put Fido in a backyard kennel or kick Fluffy out the door to play. "These are people," he said, "who are looking for ways to include that pet, for them to be part of the family."

In Connecticut, Shure Pets says its team of five, headed by Tim Conklin of Barkhamsted, sold about $9,000 worth of merchandise last year. In the first half of 2005, sales reached about $4,000. Company spokeswoman Jori Victor said the team expects that to pick up in the second half, reaching $17,000 to $20,000 for the year.

With his wife having finished college this spring, Conklin said, she will be spending more time selling and "we're going to take it to the next level."

Of course, the company poses no challenge to such retail giants as Petco and Petsmart Inc.

Total sales for 2004 were about $300,000, Victor said, but she added that sales are expected to triple this year with the number of "pet consultants" growing daily.

"We have 665 consultants now and we'll be at 700 soon," Shure said this month. "With 300 million people in the country, we're just getting started."

Robert Vetere, managing director of the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, said the trend is toward steady growth. Last year, Americans spent $34.4 billion on pets and their care and feeding - a figure that has doubled since 1994. That places pet industry sales ahead of market segments such as toys, candy and jewelry, he said, citing U.S. Census Bureau figures.

"I'm not sure he's going to become the Amway of pets," Vetere said of Shure, "but he's definitely on to something that other people are going to copy."

Conklin, 36, owns two beagles and an orange cat named Reba, and drives a delivery truck for snack food products full time. He said one thing that sold him on Shure Pets was learning that tiny Barkhamsted, a rural community of roughly 1,300 households, has about 500 licensed dogs.

There are lots of horse owners, too, and he said the Liquid Silk equine shampoo has sold well. So has an odor-killing solution for skunk accidents. "Oh, gosh, were people ever looking for that," he said. "But I haven't tested it out yet on an actual skunk, and I hope I won't have to."

Conklin said in time, he expects his new business to provide a more significant share of household income. "The timing is right," he said. "I mean, Avon started at some point, and imagine if you were there [selling it] back then!"