What do you do when millions of dollars in revenue vanish like a magician’s “Poof, now you see it, now you don’t"?
If you are Westminster, California-based BioLargo, Inc. (BLGO), you relaunch your CupriDyne-based consumer pet care products under a yet-to-be-announced brand.
While under license and marketed under the Pooph brand, BioLargo’s CupriDyne-based pet odor control products generated over $125 million in sales.
Everything seemed to be going well when it was sold directly to consumers through retailers like Chewy, Amazon and Walmart.
Unfortunately, Pooph went poof. A series of business decisions by Pooph's management later culminated in its abandonment of CupriDyne-formulated products, the foreclosure of its assets by its lender, board and CEO resignations, and what appears to be the cessation of business operations.
The pet odor control product was marketed as “safe for people, pets, and the planet,” aligning with BioLargo’s ethos and business philosophy, which focuses on sustainability and its stated mission to “make life better.”
BioLargo views pet care as a proven, well-defined category where the difference between masking and eliminating odors is immediately obvious to consumers. Unlike the Pooph brand, BioLargo's new brand will not be limited to pets and will use the pet product launch to anchor a broader expansion of CupriDyne products across the home.
While the basic chemical makeup of CupriDyne has been understood for decades, refining it, supporting its claims with countless case studies, and securing its position as a leading performer in the market took 15 years and millions of dollars.
BioLargo's newly formed subsidiary, BioLargo CPG, will bring to consumers the authentic, independently safety-tested CupriDyne technology under its own brand following the marketing success of the original Pooph products that generated more than $125 million in pet-care sales while under license from BioLargo.
“It will be great to get back into the pet odor control and consumer products business,” said BioLargo CEO Dennis Calvert. “We have seen what can be done, and this time we will own the brand and control the marketing and distribution.”
Targeting pets first, the new consumer products subsidiary will eventually expand into household odor and cleaning products.
Formed to fill the gap left by Pooph's ongoing withdrawal from the market, BioLargo will sell directly to consumers and through online marketplaces such as Amazon, leveraging a "digital-first" strategy that enables hyper-specific audience targeting, real-time performance tracking, and flexible budgets, rather than relying on expensive television campaigns.
BioLargo always owned the CupriDyne technology and had to revoke Pooph's license. Now, the ownership of the Pooph brand is embroiled in litigation. "As a result, we have an opportunity to leverage the prior marketing success by introducing our own brand," said Joseph Provenzano, who will lead the new BioLargo consumer products subsidiary as CEO.
BioLargo's launch brings the CupriDyne® technology and BioLargo's original products back to consumers who loved them. According to Grand View Research1, the U.S. pet odor control and clean-up products market was valued at approximately $6.47 billion in 2023 and is projected to reach approximately $8.87 billion by 2030. BioLargo's initial launch into pet odor control is part of a much larger home and pet cleaning opportunity.
BioLargo has assembled a team of branding, marketing, creative, and channel sales experts with proven track records of building and growing consumer brands nationally in the pet and household categories. It plans to release additional information, including the product line, the brand name, and key team members, as the product nears its formal launch.
Henry DeVries is a former Forbes online columnist who is the chief book strategist at Indie Books International. He has ghostwritten, co-authored, or edited more than 200 business books, including his international bestseller, How to Close a Deal Like Warren Buffett.
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