Mud Bay (store)

Mud Bay is an American employee owned pet store. The company was founded in 1988, in a 1905 feed store at Mud Bay Road and Kaiser Road in Olympia, Washington on the then-rural western border of the city, above Mud Bay, the southern end of Eld Inlet.[1][2]

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" after the previous occupant of the building, a health food store called "The Grainery".[3] The owners soon re-spelled the business to "Mud Bay Granary". In 2000, they acquired eight more stores and became a chain.[2] In 2002, the company dropped the word "Granary" to become "Mud Bay" as it is now known.[3] The chain expanded to 13 or 14 by 2004,[2] and continued to expand through the 2009 recession: 17 stores by June 2009,[4] 33 by 2015,[5] 40 in Oregon and Washington by January 2017.[6]

The conversion to an ESOP company started in May, 2014. 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 which work in home office, with the goal of standardizing all the 50+ stores.[7][8]

It was named Pet Business retailer of the year, 2015.[9]

Further reading
  • Eric Mathison (June 25, 2010), "Small Businesss Administration-backed loans help local businesses", The Highline Times
  • Annie Zak (July 28, 2015), "Seattle pet supply chain Mud Bay to convert to employee ownership", Puget Sound Business Journal

References
  1. http://mudbay.com/history
  2. Joanna Horowitz (August 19, 2004), "Premium pet-food store unleashes growth", The Seattle Times
  3. http://mudbay.com/frequently-asked-questions-about-mud-bay
  4. Amy Martinez and Melissa Allison (July 3, 2009), "Pet-supply shops grow while other retailers fade", The Seattle TimesCS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  5. Mendelson, Seth (2015-06-30), "A Passion for Pets & People", Pet Business, retrieved 2017-03-04
  6. Kalaygian, Mark (2017-01-01), "Exponential Growth (Pet Business' Top 25 Retailers list)", Pet Business, retrieved 2017-03-04
  7. Ross Reynolds (August 26, 2015), Mud Bay Pet Store Workers Claim Stake In Company, KUOW-FM
  8. 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
  9. "Pet magazine names Mud Bay retailer of the year", The Olympian, July 9, 2015
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