Special Report: Hollywood Feed

Special Report

Hollywood Feed

Hollywood Feed originated as a feed store in Memphis, TN with three locations in the 50s. Although the company had great success within the feed category, the retailer decided nearly 30 years later to shift its attention to pet food and supplies.

Over the years, Hollywood Feed has remained consistent and true to its core values. The company has demonstrated how to be successful and has grown from three to 105 locations in 14 states while remaining the friendly, neighborhood store pet owners can count on and appreciate. In an industry that is constantly updating, learning and educating, Hollywood Feed has maintained its roots—the ones that helped cultivate the small-town feed store into a powerhouse within independent pet specialty retail.

How it Started

The initial location was near the Hollywood and Chelsea crossroads in Memphis, TN. The store relocated to a number of different places but remained close to its original location. Hollywood Feed was known as a place to get feed, advice and friendly service. According to media reports, the company operated as Hollywood Feed until the 80s when the owners decided to change the name to Hollywood Pet Star and continued to grow the business by opening more store fronts. In the early 2000s when the McGhees purchased the business, they felt it was a good idea to go back to the retailer’s original name, Hollywood Feed. According to the company, this also avoided any confusion customers and consumers might have had.

Shawn and Jean McGhee purchased three Hollywood Feed stores in 2006. Under the new ownership, they decided to focus on pet food and supplies, but its core values and attributes stayed with the company and became a well-known part of the current business.

The couple recognized the potential the feed stores carried, and it was that vision that allowed them to expand and grow the company into what it is today. Five years after purchasing the three initial stores, the McGhees added 13 stores across four states.

Before acquiring Hollywood Feed, Shawn McGhee was an evp at AutoZone, also based in Memphis, TN. Shawn acknowledged this experience helped him understand what makes a store successful.

Shawn McGhee conveyed how his decision to join the pet industry launched his journey of purchasing Hollywood Feed. “I didn’t really decide to purchase Hollywood Feed,” McGhee told Pet Insight in late 2020. “I wrote a business plan in 2005 to approach the pet industry in what I thought was a different way. And what I believed was happening in the pet industry at the time was a misallocation of capital and because of that misallocation of capital, I thought that we could be disruptive in the pet industry by taking a different approach. It was three failing pet stores in Memphis, TN, but we liked a lot of the infrastructure that they had in place and though it would be a good starting point. So, we were fortunately able to acquire it.”

“Your first few months after you’ve written a plan and start to put the plan into action, you’re validating your assumptions. In the process of doing that, you’re constantly iterating on the plan based on what your insider knowledge suddenly reveals to you,” McGhee continued. “The interesting thing is during those early years, I had everyone telling me that what I wanted to do wouldn’t work which is not uncommon when you’re trying to be disruptive. Fortunately, we were able to make it work

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Immediately, the company had taken off with the McGhees at the helm. The duo had a goal of providing the best products and service to pets and their owners. At the heart of the company lies a promise to put its employees and consumers first, and alongside this, Hollywood Feed has committed itself to manufacturing products close to home. The company has several lines that are 100 percent sourced in the US such as Mississippi, Pennsylvania and Georgia Made products.

Made in the USA

In an interview with Pet Insight at the end of 2020, McGhee highlighted why Made in the USA is meaningful and important for the company. “Because it’s right,” he said. “At the end of the day, you can world source and you almost have to world source at this stage in life, but to be able to go out and create things in your own backyards that create the jobs, that create the revenues for those subsequent businesses, that creates a virtuous circle that comes back into our front doors. And if we can help those communities that have been hard hit because of some devastation like a pandemic or whatever it happens to be, if we can go into those communities and we can do something unique, we create jobs. I believe that endears us to those communities and makes us a better neighborhood leader.”

“Mississippi Made is a prime example,” McGhee continued. “When President Bush joined the World Trade Organization, the furniture industry was devastated, and Mississippi was a very strong manufacturing state in those days. So, you had huge unemployment within the furniture industry, and the two young ladies that started that company originally looked at it and said, ‘Well, a dog bed is nothing more than a really big sofa cushion.’ All of the expertise was sitting there, all of the raw materials were sitting there, and the manufacturing process was there, and they started pulling that business together.”

According to McGhee, when he met the owners of the company, they presented him the opportunity to purchase their inventory due to liquidation, which led him to buy the entire business and keep the integrity of the company intact. McGhee realized the importance of having products made locally, and in turn, this helped Hollywood Feed not only remain a local, neighborhood store, but enter the corporate, large chain enterprises of the pet industry.

How it’s Going

Since its inception, the company has taken advantage of many opportunities for growth. Recently, the company has implemented several changes surrounding delivery services and education.

In July 2020, Hollywood Feed launched a series of online courses called Hollywood Feed University in the hopes of educating pet parents even further on the issues they may face or need help with. The courses focus on pets’ nutrition and overall well-being. The classes are conveniently free and are run by pet experts who are dedicated to helping pet parents educate themselves on everything pet oriented.

The company also updated its sameday delivery services due to the higher demands for more delivery options— something many retailers have seen since the beginning of last year.

According to Jean McGhee, the delivery service expansion quickly took off and grew faster than they had anticipated. Hollywood Feed has proven over the years they have the ability to adapt to the circumstances, and this was demonstrated further when the retailer purchased more vehicles to keep up with the large number of orders they were receiving.

Recently, the company has been concentrating on hosting adoption and supply drives for local animal rescues and shelters.

2022 and Beyond

Hollywood Feed was not immune to the current circumstances that many companies faced in the past two years, but the retailer has been able to carry on and stay ahead of issues when possible. “We’re just trying to make sure that we take it day by day and we’re protecting everyone,” said McGhee. “What we want is as much normalcy as we possibly can have because the pet doesn’t understand. Your dog or your cat doesn’t understand if they don’t get to eat. We’ve got to be able to be that supply chain, and we’ve got to be able to deliver those products. That’s one of the reasons we invested in the same day delivery. We invested in curbside so you can have low contact/no contact supply to your products that you need to care for your pet.”

Images courtesy of Hollywood Feed