With three successful locations under their belts, two young Long Island entrepreneurs knew their business was barking up the right tree.
And now, Natural Hounds co-founders Rick Orlandi and Conor Wooley are looking to expand the canine cuisine concept through franchising.
The two friends, both graduates of Smithtown East High School, began making fresh food for dogs in 2018 and three years later opened their first Natural Hounds kitchen and store on Main Street in Port Jefferson in April 2021.
They opened a second kitchen and store in Babylon in Jan. 2023 and in July of this year, the partners opened a satellite Natural Hounds location on Gerard Street in Huntington.
Orlandi, who has two beagles named Whiskey and Milo, and Wooley, who has two bulldogs named Bonnie and Tyson and three mixed breeds named Lily, Dixie and Clint, decided franchising was the best way to expand the Natural Hounds concept. And despite the formidable competition from well-heeled online brands of fresh dog food like Farmer’s Dog, Fresh Pet and others, the partners feel their in-person business gives them a paw up on those rivals.
“Fresh frozen food online has the added cost of shipping, with insulated shippers, gel packs and all that stuff. It’s heavy and has to be shipped fast because it has to stay frozen. That’s expensive,” Wooley said.
Instead, Natural Hounds’ food, which comes in original, lamb, beef and pork varieties, is made in each store and customers take it out the door. The most popular product is the 30-pound box that sells for $145, which is less than $5 a pound.
“We’re trying to take a product which is fresh food and make it simplistic,” Orlandi said. “And through our simple systems, efficient operations and everything, try to just get fresh food to the point where anybody can buy it and just remove all the barriers.”
The partners engaged franchise development firm Fransmart, the firm behind brands like Five Guys, Qdoba and others, to bring Natural Hounds into the franchise business.
“Natural Hounds is doing for the pet industry what Five Guys did for burgers,” said Dan Rowe, Fransmart CEO. “They’re taking something people already love, making it better, fresher, and more local — all while delivering one of the easiest operational models I’ve seen. This is a brand built to scale fast and last long.”
The all-in cost to open a Natural Hounds franchise with an in-house kitchen ranges from $195,456 to $462,508, while a satellite store without a kitchen ranges from $130,070 to $195,233, according to the company. Annual net sales in the Port Jefferson and Babylon stores exceeded $685,000.
Prospective franchisees don’t need cooking skills to operate a Natural Hounds store.
“It’s very simple,” Orlandi said. “Anybody can do it.”
Rowe said the Natural Hounds concept has legs and a nose for success.
“People are crazy about their dogs,” he said. There’s tremendous demand for the food, high repeat customers, above average unit economics, ROI, and smart founders who want to convert former restaurants to keep the opening costs down.”
The company is seeking franchisees in larger markets on the East Coast to start, before spreading the concept nationwide.
“We want to bring affordable, high-quality pet food across the country, and that’s really the main reason we’re franchising,” Wooley said.
Click to learn more about Natural Hounds franchising opportunities.
