Mud Bay is an American employee-owned pet store based in Olympia, Washington, with locations throughout the Pacific Northwest.[1][2] The company was founded in 1988, in a 1905 feed store at Mud Bay Road and Kaiser Road in Olympia.[3][4]

Mud Bay
IndustryPet store
HeadquartersOlympia, Washington, U.S.
Number of locations
58 (2019)
Area served
Pacific Northwest
Websitemudbay.com

The first store on Mud Bay Road was originally called "Mud Bay Grainery", named after the previous occupant of the building, a health food store called "The Grainery".[5] The owners soon re-spelled the business to "Mud Bay Granary", referencing the storage building for grain. In 2000, they acquired eight more stores and became a chain.[4] In 2002, the company dropped the word "Granary" to become "Mud Bay" as it is now known.[5] The chain expanded to 13 or 14 by 2004,[4] and continued to expand through the 2009 recession: 17 stores by June 2009,[6] 33 by 2015,[7] 56 in Oregon and Washington by 2020.[8][9] It was named Pet Business retailer of the year, 2015.[10]

In 2015, Mud Bay announced that it would start an employee-stock ownership plan for its employees, effectively making it an employee-owned company.[11] The co-CEOs, siblings Lars Wulff and Marissa Wulff, were inspired by The Great Game of Business to do so. On August 20, 2015, the owners and employees signed a "declaration of worker ownership" at the company's annual meeting at Green River Community College. For a few years after that, many of the company's decisions were made by a team called "The 20", most of whom were elected by employee-owner peers. Since the company reached over 500 employees in 2020, most decisions are now made by the executives, with the goal of standardizing all the 50+ stores.[12][1]

References

edit
  1. ^ a b Rolf Boone (August 28, 2015), "Mud Bay offers employees stake in pet company: Growing pet-store chain offers employees opportunity to own a piece of the Tumwater-based company.", The Seattle Times
  2. ^ Heflin, Marissa (2020-07-14). "How Mud Bay Overcame the Challenges of Opening a New Store Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic". PetProductNews. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  3. ^ "About Us".
  4. ^ a b c Joanna Horowitz (August 19, 2004), "Premium pet-food store unleashes growth", The Seattle Times
  5. ^ a b http://mudbay.com/frequently-asked-questions-about-mud-bay [dead link]
  6. ^ Amy Martinez; Melissa Allison (July 3, 2009), "Pet-supply shops grow while other retailers fade", The Seattle Times
  7. ^ Mendelson, Seth (2015-06-30), "A Passion for Pets & People", Pet Business, retrieved 2017-03-04
  8. ^ Kalaygian, Mark (2017-01-01), "Exponential Growth (Pet Business' Top 25 Retailers list)", Pet Business, retrieved 2017-03-04
  9. ^ "Mud Bay Celebrates Opening Store in The Trails at Silverdale by Matching Donations to Local Pet Food Pantry". PRNewsWire. 2020-07-20. Retrieved 2024-04-11.
  10. ^ "Pet magazine names Mud Bay retailer of the year", The Olympian, July 9, 2015
  11. ^ Boone, Rolf (2015-08-25). "Tumwater-based Mud Bay, a store for dogs and cats, offers employees stake in company". The News Tribune. Retrieved 2024-04-10.
  12. ^ Ross Reynolds (August 26, 2015), Mud Bay Pet Store Workers Claim Stake In Company, KUOW-FM
edit