ABOUT Joy Dog Food

Joy Dog Food’s journey to where it is today is a very long and interesting story. It’s a tale of tradition, hard work, and family that each person will be able to find some sort of relation to in one way or another.

Although many people may not realize it, Joy was founded back in 1945 by Albert Shiffler and Russ Kohser and was originally known as Best Feeds in Oakdale, PA. They originally manufactured & sold farm feed, until 1953 when they started formulating their own dog food; and just like that the tradition was born.

Joy Dog Food has been thriving in the working dog community since it was put out in the market. Whether it be with hunting dogs or cattle dogs; Joy has always been a staple to performance dog owners with its calorie-dense formulas and high protein ratios. They began working with independent feed stores, hunting supply stores, and farm and home stores. Due to their earlier years of selling livestock feed, they already had customer relationships established and the brand awareness was present so it took off these markets. It always helped that Joy was competitive in price but never cut corners in quality.

Joy began becoming involved with events such as donating to beagle trials, coonhunting events, NSTRA events etc. at first to show that the dogs would not only hold up but their conditions would improve for marketing purposes. However, this led to sponsorship opportunities with PKC. In the early 80s Joy started their partnership with the 80’s starting with the youth.

Joy continued to thrive under the Oakdale plant and Kohser’s ownership until the early 2000’s when they sold to a commercial manufacturer that continued to make Joy. This company then sold out to a private label called Pro Pet that continued to manufacture Joy and sell to their distributors. Chip Sr. was still involved with Joy Dog Food and working with the distributors on the sidelines.

In 2011, Pro Pet noticed an up and coming dog food company that was making waves in the industry; and also producing formulas very similar to Joy Dog Food. Wade Graskewicz started his company Hi-Standard Dog Food back in 1998 and was making a huge footprint in the pet food industry. Pro Pet was never interested in growing the brand; however if they could find someone that could they would sell to them. That person was Wade Graskewicz. After about a year of negotiation, they both came to the agreement that Wade would buy the company and not only maintain the tonnage and brand image- but grow them both. Once he acquired both companies, it gave his distribution a 90 percent reach into the U.S. as well as growing into the international markets.

Nothing brings Wade more joy than having his family by his side throughout all these years, helping him build Joy from the ground up. To this day, when 3 o’clock rolls around Wade’s grandchildren stumble through the doors and fill the busy office with laughter. The same way Skyler did when he was a kid running through the store years ago and Wade is reminded of the days when he had the hunting supply store and it was just him, Skyler and his mother Ruby. Wade looks at all his employees as family and is grateful to have a strong unit to help him continue to prosper and overcome obstacles in the everchanging pet food industry.

Check out the article written about Wade Graskewicz here!

Read what our customers are saying on our Testimonial Page!

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