PHOENIX--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Last Friday, Kristina Guerrero, founder of TurboPUP, impressed the sharks on ABC’s Shark Tank with the news of her exclusive, national retail deal with PetSmart. The specialty pet store will carry her TurboPUP innovative portable meal bars for dogs in more than 900 PetSmart stores across the U.S. and Canada this year.
Guerrero’s big idea for a lightweight canine meal replacement bar was sparked by a backcountry ski trip with her dog Dunkan five years ago. Realizing he was as hungry as she was, she fed him her own provision even though she knew the food was lacking in proper canine nutrition. The experience fueled her quest to find suitable travel food for Dunkan, but she came up empty handed and decided to create TurboPUP – a premium, compact and “Complete K9 Meal Bar” to help sustain a dog’s energy level.
Guerrero headed to the kitchen, and with the help of her food-scientist husband, found the perfect recipe using grain-free, all-natural, human-grade ingredients. TurboPUP bars are a complete meal replacement solution and formulated with essential vitamins and nutrients dogs require in every stage of life.
“Kristina’s entrepreneurial spirit and hard work creating TurboPUP is the true definition of innovation,” said Eran Cohen, chief customer experience officer at PetSmart. “We love pets and know they make us better people, and we always want to deliver new solutions to help pet parents take better care of their pets, as well as to support the range of pet lifestyles out there. So many people are now always on-the-go with their pups, and TurboPUP bars are the ideal portable food solution for those weekend warriors out with their dogs whether camping, hiking or spending a day at the dog park or mall.”
TurboPUP meal bars are manufactured at a facility in Oregon and use American-sourced, human-grade ingredients. These all-natural, high-protein and grain-free bars are perfect for pet parents who get out with their dogs. The compact, lightweight meal bars come in two canine-favorite flavors: peanut butter and bacon.
"I'm thrilled TurboPUP is going to be in PetSmart stores. This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to offer TurboPUP bars to dog owners and dogs across the country," said Guerrero, TurboPUP Founder and CEO.
Guerrero, a decorated U.S. Air Force Veteran, first appeared on Shark Tank in Jan. of 2015 where she walked away with a $100,000 investment from Shark Tank’s Daymond John. The funds helped her kick-start TurboPUP with manufacturing, distribution and expansion plans for the TurboPUP line.
PetSmart is the largest pet specialty retailer for services and solutions that address the lifetime needs of pets, and is dedicated to product innovation, often premiering the latest pet lifestyle products in its stores. Debuting the TurboPUP product is a natural fit, and the bars can now be found at PetSmart stores and petsmart.com through April 2016.
About PetSmart®
PetSmart, Inc. is the largest specialty pet retailer of services and solutions for the lifetime needs of pets. At PetSmart, we love pets, and we believe pets make us better people. Every day with every connection, PetSmart’s passionate associates help bring pet parents closer to their pets so they can live more fulfilled lives. This mission impacts everything we do for our customers, the way we support our associates, and how we give back to our communities. We employ approximately 53,000 associates, operate approximately 1,444 pet stores in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico and approximately 202 in-store PetSmart® PetsHotel® dog and cat boarding facilities. PetSmart provides a broad range of competitively priced pet food and pet products and offers dog training, pet grooming, pet boarding, PetSmart Doggie Day Camp day care services and pet adoption services in-store. Our portfolio of digital resources for pet parents – including PetSmart.com, PetFoodDirect.com, Pet360.com, OnlyNaturalPet.com and petMD.com – offers the most comprehensive online pet supplies and pet care information in the U.S. Through our in-store pet adoption partnership with independent nonprofit organizations, PetSmart Charities™ and PetSmart Charities™ of Canada, PetSmart helps to save the lives of more than 450,000 homeless pets each year. In addition, PetSmart supports organizations that make communities a better place to call home through our philanthropy program, PetSmart Gives Back™. By giving back to the communities where we live and work, PetSmart not only celebrates the power of pets to enrich people's lives—we live it.
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