This Multimillion Dollar Brand Built Robots To Scoop Cat Poop So You Don't Have To | Forbes

Here’s the scoop on how Whisker, maker of the Litter-Robot with $180 million in sales this year, aims to get stinking rich from the business of kitties doing their business.

Eric DosSantos loves his cat, Autumn, but he hates scooping Autumn’s poop. Like most cat lovers, DosSantos, a Los Angeles media producer, was using the typical plastic litter box with a rake. He found it disgusting. DosSantos decided to do something about it. About five years ago, he shelled out $545 for a self-cleaning box called Litter-Robot 3. He’s since upgraded to the Litter-Robot 4, which has a list price of a whopping $699. He now has both the old robotic litter box and the new one, each in a different area of his home. “Cat shit is a horror, and the Litter-Robot makes it a little bit better,” he says.

Compared with all the terrible things going on in the world, dealing with cat scat is a minor annoyance. But for the 45.3 million American households with cats, it’s a daily one. And pet owners are big spenders. Pet industry sales reached $124 billion last year, according to the American Pet Products Association.

That spending, combined with the popularity of robotic vacuum cleaners and the acceptance of technology in our homes, has led to a growing business for Whisker, maker of the Litter-Robot, an automated feeder and an expanding list of other products. It’s not the only company designing high-tech litter boxes. Competitors include larger companies like Spectrum Brands (LitterMaid) and Radio Systems (PetSafe), as well as a host of cheaper knockoffs made in China, a perennial problem for most consumer-products companies.

Still, Auburn Hills, Michigan-based Whisker is growing rapidly. Revenue hit $150 million last year, a 20-fold increase from $7.5 million in 2015. It expects to reach $180 million in sales this year, despite glitches with its latest product rollout that angered some customers and forced the company to slow sales. Meanwhile, it’s preparing more tech-enabled pet products for rollout and coming up with ways to use the data its devices generate to flag animals’ health problems early.

Chapters:
The billion dollar pet care market: 00:00
Whisker's humble beginnings: 00:39
Whisker transforms its marketing: 04:00
Pivot to TV and social: 06:40
Whisker made in the USA: 08:59
Whisker's company culture: 11:00

Read the full story on Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/amyfeldman/2022/12/16/inside-the-company-that-uses-robots-to-deal-with-cat-poop/?sh=26931d33259f

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