Kennel manufacturer known for durability achieves global growth
Nov. 2, 2023
This paid piece is sponsored by Sioux Metro Growth Alliance.
How does a company making pet kennels in Tea become one of the nation’s fastest-growing businesses?
Start by crediting the customer who wanted a kennel to match her car.
“Her car was this vibrant blue-green – we call it Malibu – and I got to work on it,” said Alisa Turner, who now is CEO of Ruff Land Kennels.
“I said, ‘I’m going match this lady’s car for her,’ and I got some samples, and the feedback was just phenomenal. And now it’s probably our top seller, along with purple, aside from our stock colors.”
New and changing colors, accessories and a growing base of business worldwide have combined to create a strong growth spurt for the company, which earlier this year ranked No. 2,716 on the Inc. 5000 national list of fastest-growing companies, with 197 percent growth between 2019 and 2022.
“This company is a model for how to incubate, evolve and scale a business from a community the size of Tea,” said Tyler Tordsen, president of Sioux Metro Growth Alliance. “It’s a fantastic success story that’s likely just getting started.”
When Turner joined the business more than a decade ago, it had clear seasonality – hunters in search of a better kennel helped spark the idea for the company a few years before that. Today, though, “it is just gangbusters year-round,” she said. “Especially with our limited-edition colors. I think that’s what propelled us to the next level and ahead of competitors trying to get in on what we’ve created.”
Cornering the kennel market
Ruff Land Kennels evolved out of Roto Mold LLC, which began offering custom rotational molding in 1999 to business clients. About a decade later, business partners Doug Sangl and Lyle Van Kalsbeek heard from customers in the hunting and dog breeding industries needing a more durable kennel.
Today, the company employs 32 people, and two former employees started their own operation in Brandon offering services to Ruff Land Kennels and employing 10 more people.
Turner joined in 2012 as “the girl who does everything” and then became office manager, general manager and finally CEO within the past year. She’s also now a partner in the business.
While others in the industry have tried to emulate Ruff Land Kennels, “we were the first one-piece rotationally molded product, and the durability and toughness is just unmatched,” she said. “Once someone has our kennel, they’re not going to migrate away from it.”
Far from it – Turner points to customers with a full lineup of kennels, including those who frequent dog shows, and increasingly women.
“It is heavily female – they’re doing the dock diving and the show dogs and agility training, and women are getting more into the hunting scene,” Turner said. “In South Dakota, women are involved just by the nature of living here, but nationwide it’s becoming more prevalent.”
The company does all its design, plastic manufacturing and back-office work in Tea.
“We build to order – it’s part of our lean manufacturing process, so we really streamlined everything,” she said.
In the past year, the business completed a $2 million expansion, including two new large machines, “which tightened our lead times and made a world of difference to customers and dealers,” Turner said. “And we got robotics to automate our finishing, so last year was a huge year of growth.”
From Tea to Tokyo
About half of Ruff Land Kennels’ business is sold directly to consumers. The rest is distributed through wholesale and sold everywhere from Bass Pro Shops to Cabela’s nationally, along with Scheels and Ace Hardware closer to home.
“We just signed contracts with the military exchanges and law enforcement purchasing, so if you’re a canine handler, you can go to a site and get gear at a discount,” Turner said. “It’s super exciting because we love supporting military and law enforcement.”
Popular accessories such has a 1-gallon traveling water container, top trays to hold gear, tie-downs, covers and fans help further support the business.
The company also has a growing base of international business. It began years ago with Cabela’s in Canada and expanded based on customer demand.
“Someone would email me from Japan, which was one of our first big accounts internationally, and then we just continued to get requests from other countries, and you want to encourage and support that,” Turner said. “Certain countries are off-limits, but basically if it ships, we will ship it, and it’s been super exciting. We’re in quite a few countries in Europe, and I’m going to Australia in two weeks to meet with a bunch of distributorships.”
The international growth has been so impressive that Turner this year was named the 2023 SBA South Dakota Small Business Exporter of the Year.
Her success has included relying on state and federal resources as Ruff Land Kennels has entered into exporting, she said.
“We could have never afforded an import-export specialist because the sales weren’t there to support it, she said. “In the beginning, every dime we made went into buying more material. So I hope to share with other small-business owners how those resources are available.”
Throughout the company’s growth, it has remained committed to being based in Tea. It’s now in multiple facilities totaling nearly 50,000 square feet, with land left for expansion.
“When we first started, we weren’t even incorporated into Tea, and within the last two years, we have been and have city services, which is really nice,” Turner said. “It’s given us police presence, city sewer and water and lighting on our street. It’s a great location, and it’s been good to us. We want to stay here and stay part of the community, and yet we’re close enough that we still also feel a part of Sioux Falls.”
The company is a strong example of the advantages of locating in a Sioux Metro community, said Tordsen at Sioux Metro Growth Alliance.
“Ruff Land Kennels has benefited significantly from a cost-effective, accessible location for the business that allows them to take advantage of talent in the Sioux Falls metro area while becoming a key employer in a smaller community,” he said. “It’s a great model for how a business can start small, keep its roots in the community and grow quickly to worldwide reach.”
