Spot & Tango to double Allentown pet food manufacturing with $20 million expansion

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A pet food manufacturer in Allentown is investing more than $20 million to increase its size and double its capacity to meet the demand for its most popular product. 

Spot & Tango is expanding its Allentown site from 70,000  to 90,000 square feet and adding 50 new jobs to its staff of 100 as it increases  production of UnKibble, a shelf-stable dog food that the company said has the benefits of fresh food with the convenience of kibble. 

The new jobs will include positions in production, quality, maintenance, logistics, and warehouse operations. 

Dylan Munro, co-founder and COO of Spot & Tango, said he and his partner, Russell Breuer began the company in 2018, cooking fresh dog food in their Queens, New York kitchen and shipping it to customers. 

The idea to make a high-quality fresh dog food came from Breuer’s dog, Jack. His wife’s family had always cooked their own dog food, and people started to inquire about their recipes, or if they could get them to make food for their pets. 

The business grew to the point they needed a full manufacturing facility and opened their current plant on Morris Court in Allentown. 

They originally focused on making fresh dog food, using human-grade ingredients, but Munro said even though the product was of an extremely high quality, it did have its drawbacks. 

“We heard from customers that it’s hard to travel with, can be messy and takes up a lot of space in their refrigerator or freezer,” Munro said. 

To address those issues, they developed what is now Spot & Tango’s bestselling product. 

UnKibble has the same human-grade ingredients and nutrition as Spot & Tango’s fresh, refrigerated dog food, but is dried through a propriety process that makes the food kibble-like and shelf-stable. 

“It’s a whole new category of dog food,” Munro said. And because it is a complex process to dry the food into kibble form, UnKibble is a unique product in the market. 

He said the UnKibble is at a lower price point and sells for about 40% less than refrigerated dog food and contains the same quality in a more convenient form. 

It was such a hit, the company sold out quickly on its initial production. 

“We made enough that we thought it would last three to four months, but we sold out in four days,” Munro said. 

 Spot & Tango took over the newly expanded space June 1, and Munro said he expects to be fully operational by July.  

The company so far has served more than 150 million dog meals through its website.