It’s the dog days of summer in the most literal sense, thanks to Raw Sugar Living.
The personal care brand — which debuted at Target in 2014 and became a nine-figure business within less than eight years of launch — is extending its ethos of “clean” and accessible personal care to pets with its newest collection.
Called Fur Kids, the three-product range features a Sensitive Skin Shampoo + Conditioner; a Shiny Coat Shampoo + Conditioner, and Freshen Up Pup Wipes, each priced at $14.99 and featuring active ingredients such as niacinamide; oatmeal; chamomile extract; pH-balancing apple cider vinegar, and baking powder for its deodorizing capabilities. The spiked rubber cap of the Shampoo + Conditioner hybrids doubles as a scrubber and massage tool.
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Formulated with the same cold-pressed, pthalate- and sulfate-free approach as Raw Sugar’s adult and kids personal care lines — the latter of which debuted in 2021 and accounts for more than $20 million of the company’s total sales, said chief executive officer Michael Marquis — the new line is billed first and foremost as an addition to its personal care collection, versus a foray into a new category.
“There’s the strategic marketing story behind the launch, and then there’s kind of just the love of pets and animals story,” said Marquis, pointing to the booming growth of the pet care industry — which reached $147 billion in 2023 and is expected by the American Pet Products Association to top $250 billion by 2030.
“In having conversations with our consumer base about our [kids line], there was a bit of this tongue-and-cheek, where people were saying, ‘Oh, yeah, I’ve got kids — they just have four legs,'” the CEO continued. “That planted the seed in our mind for pet care as an extension of our kids business.”
The brand presented the new line to retail partners as such, with the aim of securing shelf space next to its adult and kids products — which sell side-by-side in most of the brand’s roughly 38,000 Target, Walmart, CVS Pharmacy and Costco doors nationwide.
Getting retailers on board with the approach, however, proved more challenging than anticipated.
“We were getting a lot of, ‘I don’t know — it would need to go here because this [aisle] is where people go for pet products,’ — we couldn’t quite get people to think about it differently,” said Marquis, who, alongside the brand’s equally undeterred cofounder, Donda Mullis, pivoted to a direct-to-consumer launch strategy instead.
It’s the brand’s biggest — and second — DTC launch to date, following that of its vegan biotin-infused Grow Pro Shampoo in 2023, which entered retail following its success on the brand’s website (which only launched in 2022). “Launching [Grow Pro] online first helped us understand how it worked with consumers and expand from there; Fur Kids kind of follows in those same footsteps,” said Marquis, adding that in 2023 the brand continued its trajectory of double-digit sales growth.
Within the next few years, he anticipates Raw Sugar’s kid’s business, including Fur Kids, could reach $100 million in itself.
“We don’t want to follow the traditional spaces and ways in which pet care has historically been merchandised, and we’ll do it ourselves until we find a partner that has the same vision.”
Added Mullis: “My challenge has always been, ‘How do we do that next thing that people just cannot wait to see?,’ that will evoke that ‘Oh my gosh, what is Raw Sugar up to?,’ — Fur Kids is that.”