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Pet Wants Adds Franchising Veteran to Leadership Team

Julia Rivera//December 6, 2022//

Pet Wants Adds Franchising Veteran to Leadership Team

Julia Rivera //December 6, 2022//

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Press release: Pet Wants

Pet Wants, the only national provider of pet food freshly delivered to customers, is quickly establishing itself as one of the most exciting franchise opportunities in the fast-growing pet food segment. With 47 new franchise locations sold last year alone, Pet Wants is catching the attention of business-savvy entrepreneurs and animal lovers looking to leverage a proven model and robust support infrastructure to achieve their dreams of business ownership. Now, to encourage healthy growth, the brand is also building out its leadership team, with the latest addition of DeNita Carani joining as brand president.

“I’ve been on both sides of the franchising equation,” said Carani. “I love that franchising allows everyday people to build a lifestyle for themselves and grow wealth for their families in a structured environment. I have owned a business previous to franchising as well, so I’ve seen how hard it is to be completely independent. The support, structure and best practices that a franchise brings are incredibly valuable.”

Carani has had a long and fruitful career in the franchising industry, both as a franchisee and as a franchisor. Most recently, she served as the senior director of operations for the in-home childcare franchise Jovie (formerly known as College Nannies + Sitters). Before that, she owned the brand’s first franchise in the Atlanta market for 10 years. Carani also built a startup business in the medical alert space from the ground up.

This year, Carani says she was looking for other career opportunities in the franchising space when she came across Pet Wants. After spending the early part of her career helping the elderly and the middle part serving children, Carani says she was ready to provide support to a new group: pets and pet parents.

“I was immediately drawn to the whole mission of the brand: promote the health and wellness of pets,” Carani said. “I am a rescue dog mom. I can’t remember a time when I didn’t have at least two rescue dogs in my family. I loved the idea of being a part of a brand that is full of franchisees who share my passion for pets. That was really attractive to me.”

And as a franchising industry veteran, Carani says she knows a strong business model when she sees one.

“With spending in the pet industry reaching well above $100 billion, food and treats alone are approaching $50 billion a year in the U.S.,” said Carani. “It really felt to me like this industry and brand has tremendous upside potential. The demographics of today, both younger and older generations, treat their pets as family members. Nutrition is important to them. The health and longevity of their pets. They want to buy treats that their pets enjoy and that are also good for them. Pet Wants gives entrepreneurs the opportunity to tap into that industry.”

Pet Wants prides itself on making pet food with fresh, natural ingredients enhanced with vitamins and minerals and free of potentially harmful fillers, bad ingredient choices and animal byproducts. When it comes to the simplicity of the operations, Pet Wants exclusive premium fresh pet foods are manufactured in the brand’s U.S. facility and shipped in small batches directly to Pet Wants franchises. This means franchisees can enjoy exclusivity when it comes to customer demand in the growing pet food industry. The Pet Wants marketing team also continues to find ways to increase brand recognition through national and regional advertising campaigns.

Now, in her role as brand president, Carani says she has been learning about the system, meeting with owners and diving into support processes so she can answer the question: how can we better serve franchisees?

“Our success is measured on their success,” said Carani. “We want to grow the brand to 200 locations by the end of 2024. But we want to do that in conjunction with the continued growth of existing franchisees. I want them to all grow at an accelerated pace as well.”

Looking ahead, Carani says she is most excited to lead the amazing Pet Wants team and watch them expand their abilities to support franchise owners. “It is so exciting to be leading an organization that is driven by passion,” she said. “I love being able to help individuals who have a passion for being in business for themselves, but not by themselves.”