Dog treat maker opening 2nd shop
If you have a sweet tooth, check it at the door of this bakery business.
Nom Nom Nom Natural Dog Treats has cupcakes and doughnuts galore, but the shop has goodies for canines only.
Owner Johnna Kredel, a Canal Winchester resident, opened her second Nom Nom Nom location in August at 6500 Hayden Run Road in Columbus. It is near the northwest boundary of Hilliard and south of Dublin.
She opened the first Nom Nom Nom shop in September 2018 at 3 W. Waterloo St. in Canal Winchester.
Kredel said she had two goals in mind when she took the leap to open Nom Nom Nom: to provide healthful dog treats that everyone could afford and to support the local small businesses she would need to operate her own.
“It’s a passion,” said Kredel, adding that her focus remains on fulfilling those goals rather than making a significant profit.
She said she also strives to please customers and their canine companions. Those include a woman with five Pomeranians who twice a year takes a road trip from Maryland with her dogs to stock up at Nom Nom Nom – between online orders, she said.
Kredel said she chose to open her
second shop near Hilliard because of the growing number of repeat customers as a result of selling dog treats at the Hilliard Farm Market at Hilliard United Methodist Church.
Kredel began baking homemade dog treats about eight years ago with her daughter, Madison, in the kitchen of their home, then in Lithopolis, for their Labrador mix, Herbie.
“A few family and friends asked to make them, too,” she said.
But the requests increased quickly in the midst of a 2015 nationwide recall of commercially made dog treats for possible contamination that cleared the shelves at large retail stores, Kredel said.
“My sister called to ask if I could make her dog treats, and it kept going from there,” she said.
Kredel said she paid even more attention to the ingredients of commercially made dog treats, which often contain chicken meal and other ingredient fillers that are not generally healthful for dogs, as she planned her homemade treats.
As her cottage industry grew, Kredel began to consider a larger business model.
Armed with only four original recipes for dog treats, she obtained the required certification from the Consumer Protection Laboratory of the Ohio Department of Agriculture that allowed her to commercially sell her products at farmers markets, festivals and shows.
The business grew enough that she was able to leave her job as a customer-service-representative trainer at a call center to focus on her small business.
She began enlisting the help of family, too.
Nine family members, in varying degrees, contribute to the manufacture, transportation, retail operations and marketing for the two shops.
“It's wonderful to see all the other dog-lovers and their pets come in here,” said Kredel's sister, Barbara Short, who helps operate the shops.
Many of the customers and their pets are depicted in photos on the shops' walls, Short said.
Even after she opened the 450square-foot shop in Canal Winchester, Kredel or her family members were working as many as 42 shows a year before the onset of the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic.
Kredel has resumed working at only a handful of those shows but said she knows the second store will help reach new customers.
Nom Nom Nom's goodies, with recipes numbering about 30, are made at a factory in east Columbus and delivered each day the stores are open, Kredel said.
“I use only ingredients from local businesses,” she said.
Those include apples, honey, peanut butter, maple syrup and eggs.
Handmade and sometimes customized birthday cakes and “Doggie Donut Saturday” are among the favorites of customers and canines, Kredel said.
The original Nom Nom Nom location in Canal Winchester is open from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesdays through Saturdays. The new location on Hayden Run Road is open from noon to 8 p.m. Mondays through Saturdays.
For more information, go to nomnomnomfordogs.com kcorvo@thisweeknews.com @Thisweekcorvo