Sept. 20, 2021

At one point during the pandemic, Sioux Falls-based Groomer’s Choice Pet Products shifted from bottling dog shampoo to bottling hand sanitizer.

With groomers shut down nationwide, the company’s core customers weren’t buying.

“Things have changed,” said Dan Dressen, who owns the business with his wife, Wendy. “The pet business took off pretty substantially after that.”

That’s putting it mildly.

As more people stayed home, more pets got homes. Those dogs and cats now need baths and haircuts.

“So the pet industry has gone crazy,” Dressen said, adding there’s also now a shortage of groomers.

“There’s more demand for their services than people to provide it.”

It’s led to a surge in sales for Groomer’s Choice, which Dressen believes might now be the nation’s largest supplier of products to pet grooming shops.

In addition to selling directly to groomers, the business sells some in retail locations such as Pet Supplies Plus and Tractor Supply Co., along with self-service grooming locations.

“We’re always adding new products, just whatever makes sense,” he said. “We have four warehouses – Philadelphia, Tampa, Las Vegas, and South Dakota is the main corporate headquarters and where we do the manufacturing.”

The location here recently got much bigger. Groomer’s Choice has added 70,000 square feet of office, manufacturing and warehouse east of Interstate 29 and north of Benson Avenue, totaling 125,000 square feet.

“There’s more warehouse than anything, but about close to a third of the building is manufacturing,” Dressen said. “It’s a pretty big addition. It should last us for a while, but I am looking ahead to the future to see what’s next. We’ve used up all our land, so we’ll have to figure out what to do once we fill this up.”

He’s also in hiring mode, at just about 60 employees companywide with five or six open positions.

“It’s almost like a hidden secret in Sioux Falls,” he said. “There’s a lot going on here.”