Topflite managing director Greg Webster said when the family business launched in the 1970s, the target market was New Zealand bird breeders via mail order.
The business has pivoted to target pet owners. Topflite products have now been in retail stores across New Zealand for about 15 years.
Demand was strong for pet food during the pandemic, Mr Webster said.
"We had a big economic burst through Covid. It was good for the industry because everyone was home ... and getting pets."
Retail sales had been "flatlining" due to an economic downturn for the past year or two, he said.
"People have been watching their pennies so it has been a bit tougher. Retail sales have been pretty sluggish."
The business was "recession-resistant" rather than being recession proof, he said.
Many pets bought in the pandemic had been put up for adoption, he said.
"We are doing 100 orders a day."
A trend continuing to grow was people "humanising" their pets, treating them as family members and being willing to spend money on premium pet food.
"They’ll go out of their way to spend money on them."
Another trend was people buying bird seed to feed wild birds in their gardens, he said.
"That is a real growth area for us. Anyone can be a wild bird feeder."
Winter was the peak season for selling feed for wild birds, he said.
"When it is cold the birds are down off the hills and looking for food."
Topflite launched a duck food about five years ago.
Mr Webster and his wife Sandra own half of Topflite.
Topflite was launched by his father Jock Webster and Jock’s brother-in-law, Ross Mitchell, who was farming with his brother Bruce.
The son of Ross, Pete Mitchell and his wife Sandra, own the other half of Topflite and grow most of the seed, including sunflower and canary, to make the pet food.
Pete and his son Henry grow the crops on sheep and beef farm Rosedale, in Weston, which operates as a separate business to Topflite.
Crops such as sunflowers can only be planted in the same paddock once in every seven years to minimise a buildup of diseases, pests and weeds. Consequently, Topflite leases land across Otago and South Canterbury to grow sunflowers to ensure a continual supply to maintain production.
Topflite operates two sites in North Otago, bulk producing pet feed at the Rosedale farm site and a distribution centre and head office in north Oamaru.
They employ 33 staff across both sites.
Nothing came of an investigation to shift part of the business to Auckland.
"We looked at it a while ago but it didn’t stack up ... and we’ve got a settled team down here."
If Topflite moved out of North Otago, "you’d lose the heart of the business", he said.
A dream was to get all of the business operating from one site in North Otago.
The business owned some land in north Oamaru and was leasing it and that had potential to build a unified site.
"It depends on cost to build — it’s not cheap. When it all stacks up, we’ll do it."
The business was launched because imported bird seed was flooding New Zealand in the 1970s.
Any imported product required heat-treating at the border, a bio-security measure to kill pests, which also stripped nutrients from the seed.
Consequently, the possibility of Topflite exporting products was challenging due to the heat-treatment process.
Topflite still had aspirations to export, but it would need to be on a product modified to increase its worth to the customer, to cover the cost of the treatment process.
"We are working on it, but it needs to be with an added-value product."
Rabbits and guinea pigs loved eating the sweet-smelling Timothy hay, which was high in fibre, he said.
A feed containing the hay had been modified to pellet form for rabbits.
Timothy hay could not be grown in Australia, as it was considered a weed there.
Australia imported most of its Timothy hay from pet food producers in the United States.
There was potential for Topflite to export Timothy hay products to Australia and beyond.
"There is worldwide demand for it."
China was also a potential export market for Topflite, he said.
"We will export one day. It is just about finding the right opportunity that is going to be worthwhile."
