Pet Products & Supplies Logistics
Handling 70-75% of a major pet manufacturer's Canadian transport. From 2-oz fish food to 50-lb bags of kibble, we manage the full complexity of pet product distribution.
The pet industry doesn't get the attention that fashion or electronics do in logistics conversations, but the operational complexity is just as real. Pet products span a massive range of form factors — 40-pound bags of dog food, delicate glass aquariums, live-goods accessories, small-item blister packs, and oversized items like pet crates — all flowing through the same supply chain. Mikhaiel Logistics has deep experience in this vertical. We handle 70-75% of a major pet manufacturer's Canadian transport — one of the world's largest pet product companies — and the operational knowledge we've built from that relationship informs everything we do in this sector.
Unique Challenges in Pet Product Logistics
Weight and Density Variation
A single pet product catalogue might include 2-oz packages of fish food and 50-lb bags of premium dog kibble. The storage profile, pick methodology, and freight characteristics are completely different, but they all ship to the same retailers on the same PO.
Fragile and Oversized Items
Aquariums, terrariums, and glass accessories require careful handling during pick, pack, and transit. Damage rates spike with providers who don't understand how to store and ship these products. Oversized items like dog crates and cat towers have unusual dimensions that complicate standard pallet configurations.
High SKU Counts
A leading pet product manufacturer may carry thousands of active SKUs across multiple brands and categories (aquatics, small animal, dog, cat, reptile, bird). Managing that SKU breadth requires a WMS that handles complex inventory segmentation and a warehouse layout designed for efficient multi-category picking.
Retailer Diversity
Pet products sell through pet specialty chains, mass-market retailers, grocery stores, hardware stores, and online marketplaces. Each channel has different compliance requirements, delivery expectations, and order profiles.
Seasonal and Promotional Cycles
Holiday gifting, summer outdoor products (pools, outdoor kennels), and back-to-school small-animal supplies all create predictable demand waves that need to be planned for and staffed against.
How Mikhaiel Logistics Handles Pet Products
Our long-term partnership with a leading global pet product manufacturer has given us two decades of pet-product operational expertise that can't be replicated with a generic warehouse setup:
- Multi-format handling — We store and ship everything from small blister-packed accessories to heavy bags of pet food to fragile glass aquariums. Our warehousing configurations account for the weight, fragility, and dimensional variety that pet products demand.
- High-SKU pick operations — Pick and pack workflows are configured for catalogues with thousands of active SKUs. Slot profiling ensures fast-moving items are positioned for rapid access, while long-tail SKUs are stored efficiently without consuming prime pick slots.
- Damage prevention — Fragile items receive specific storage placement (lower rack positions, dedicated zones) and careful handling protocols during pick and pack. We know from experience which pet product categories are breakage-prone and we plan accordingly.
- National distribution — Pet products ship to every type of retailer in every province. Our Belleville, Calgary, and Montreal facilities provide the geographic coverage to reach pet retailers coast-to-coast with reasonable transit times and freight costs.
- Kitting and bundling — Kitting services for pet product promotional packs, starter kits, seasonal bundles, and point-of-purchase displays. Pet retailers run frequent promotions, and the ability to assemble bundled offers quickly is a competitive advantage.
- Transport management — Managing 70-75% of a major pet manufacturer's Canadian transport means we move pet products at serious scale. Our transportation team knows the routing, the carriers, and the receiving requirements for every major pet product retailer and distributor in the country.
Client Spotlight: Leading Pet Product Manufacturer
Our anchor client in this vertical is a Montreal-headquartered global leader in pet care products, with brands spanning aquatics, dog and cat, small animal, and more. Mikhaiel Logistics handles 70-75% of their Canadian transport — a relationship built over years of consistent performance across a demanding, high-SKU, multi-category product line.
This isn't a sideline account. The volume and complexity represent some of the most challenging logistics work in the pet industry, and our ability to deliver it reliably at scale is the strongest proof point we can offer to other pet product companies evaluating 3PL partners.
Relevant Capabilities
- Warehousing & Storage — Multi-format storage for diverse pet product catalogues
- Pick & Pack — High-SKU, multi-category pick operations
- Kitting & Assembly — Promotional bundles, starter kits, seasonal packs
- Transportation & Freight — National freight for pet product distribution
- Inventory Management — SKU-level tracking across thousands of items
- Order Fulfillment — Multi-channel fulfillment for retail and e-commerce
Distribute Pet Products Across Canada?
Talk to our team about your pet product distribution needs. We bring 20+ years of pet industry logistics experience to the table.