Himalayan Pet Supply of 'Shark Tank' fame names new president

Arlington-based Himalayan Pet Supply has named Nate Kredich as its new president.

Kredich is replacing Suman Shrestha, who founded the company in 2008 and will continue to focus on product development and procurement for Himalayan, which announced the move earlier this month. Kredich has spent that last six years at chief operating officer of the pet food company The Honest Kitchen.

"I'm attracted to the better-for-you kinds of products and brands," Kredich said. "I knew about Himalayan. I knew the brand. There's a lot to love."

Himalayan, which appeared on the hit investing reality show "Shark Tank" in 2015 but didn't land a deal, is part of Primal Pet Group, which has brands that include Primal Pet Foods, EcoKind and Prairie Dog Pet Products. Primal Pet Group is a portfolio company of private equity firm Kinderhook Industries.

Kredich will oversee Himalayan and EcoKind, both of which make dog treats. He lives in San Diego for now but plans to move to the Seattle area eventually.

Himalayan makes a variety of dog treats and toys, but its flagship product is a hard cheese chew called the Original Himalayan Dog Chew. Shrestha said a friend who had been a Peace Corps volunteer in Nepal adopted a stray dog and started feeding the dog cheese treats that looked like a bone.

The cheese treats were meant for humans, however, and when Shrestha went to the friend's home for dinner one night, he recognized the treat from his youth. He was studying chemistry at the time and decided to make a dog-specific chew sourced from cheese from Nepal. Shrestha introduced the chew at a small fair in Bellingham and sold out of it in two hours.

Shrestha and Himalayan have prioritized a social mission in Nepal while growing the business. The company only works with farmers if their daughters go to school and don't marry before turning 21 years old. If there is no school in the area, Himalayan will find other routes to education for women, such as libraries and scholarships.

"In an underdeveloped country like Nepal, that becomes a key corporate responsibility," Shrestha said. "We follow that in detail. We ended up rejecting a lot of dairy centers, collectors and farmers who were not following the social responsibility aspect."

Himalayan moved from Mukilteo to a 118,000-square-foot facility in Arlington at the start of last year. At the facility, Himalayan bakes the product from Nepal to kill pathogens, and the company takes excess cheese to make more chews and avoid waste. The company had 99 employees when it moved, according to Shrestha, but now has about 160. Most of Himalayan's employees are based in Arlington, Kredich added.

"We're getting more and more efficient," he said. "When Suman thought this was going to be more than enough space, right now it's probably just enough space. So it just forces us to be a little more efficient."