After rescuing her abused pup Brutus from a high-kill animal shelter, Sue Delegan said she nursed him back to health using two simple ingredients: “love and grandma’s bone broth.”
“People used to ask where she bought it, and [at the time] there was nowhere to buy a pet-safe bone broth because broth for humans would have mostly onions, which is toxic for dogs,” said Delegan’s sister Kim Hehir.
Knowing they had something special in their family’s traditional bone broth recipe, the sisters came together to launch Brutus Bone Broth. Tasty and nutrient-rich, their broth makes dry dog food easier to digest and is fortified with glucosamine and chondroitin, which can give dogs added joint and hip protection.
When the sisters began researching the dog food segment, they saw artisanal dog products at one end of the spectrum, well-known brands at the other—and a massive opportunity in between. Hehir recalled that “there were no scalable, high-quality artisanal pet products. From day one, we wanted our product to be scalable.”
In 2018, Brutus Bone Broth launched in the Amazon store and in 165 Wegmans and Big Y supermarket locations. It was an immediate hit and shot to the top of the Amazon charts, hitting number one in its category almost immediately. Hehir and Delegan took advantage of Amazon’s many seller tools to market Brutus Broth (and later Bone Broth Biscuits) as their small business blossomed.
“Consumers are going to shop in-store when they want to shop in-store and then they’re going to shop on Amazon for convenience—so they are shopping in both places, and we want to be in both places,” Hehir said, adding that Amazon paved the way for Brutus Bone Broth’s success in brick-and-mortar.
She explained that even when shoppers are in a physical store, “people seek out Amazon to research a product they want to purchase. They get on their phones and can instantly find reviews and other information. Amazon gives us credibility.”
It also gave the sisters motivation to keep pushing forward.
“As a small business, you have so much going on, and there are so many times when you’re like, ‘Oh, my God. What? Why am I doing this?’ And [Amazon] kind of just gives you that reason to keep doing it because you do get customer feedback,” Hehir said.
One of the sisters’ favorite tools has been Inspire, an in-app shopping feed personalized with shoppable photos and videos tailored to a customer’s selected interests and engagement. In just a few taps, shoppers can discover new products or get inspiration on what to buy, all tailored to their interests.
Inspire is “really cool because it gives you a chance to bring a little bit more life to your product and show its uses,” Hehir said. “Our product has a lot of versatility and Inspire allows us to demonstrate that. A picture is worth 1,000 words.”
The latest Brutus Bone Broth product is a cookbook, Beyond the Bowl: 40 Recipes for Your Dog That Your Family Will Love (February 2024), sold exclusively in the Amazon store. Hehir explained that, once again, selling with Amazon enhances their in-person strategy: “Amazon is the perfect place to test our new items and develop a go-to-market strategy for brick-and-mortar based on the analytics gleaned from our Amazon sales experience.”
Brutus Bone Broth is not all about the bottom line. The company donates both resources and products to animal shelters nationwide. In addition, its significant sustainability efforts include biodegradable packaging, a climate-friendly cart that allows customers to reduce the carbon impact of their purchase and manufacturing partners that are 100% hydro-powered by Niagara Falls.
Over the past six years, Delgan and Hehir have leveraged their Amazon success to expand their brick-and-mortar footprint well beyond Wegmans and Big Y. Today, dog lovers can purchase Brutus Bone Broth at retail chains such as Shop Rite, Walmart, CVS, PetSmart and Target, as well as numerous independent markets and small mom-and-pop stores. Thanks largely to its partnership with Amazon, Brutus Bone Broth can be found in more than 10,000 stores nationwide—and Hehir said they plan on increasing their presence in the coming year. She added, “We want ‘Brutus Broth’ to be a household name!”