Canine To Five is starting its second year at its new location in Ferndale and is looking for a bigger space to help accommodate its success.
The dog daycare business, which got its start in Detroit's Midtown neighborhood, opened its second location in Ferndale last year. It now takes care of 60 dogs a day there. It took the company several years to reach that number at its Detroit location.
Canine To Five currently employs 15 people at its Ferndale digs and is looking for a bigger location to accommodate its growing pack of customers. "When I find the perfect building, I'll know," says Liz Blondy, owner of
Canine To Five.
The business got its start on Cass Avenue just south of Martin Luther King Boulevard in Detroit in 2005. Back then the rebranding of the old Cass Corridor as Midtown was just beginning and dog boarding was a relatively new idea to the market. Today it employs 45 people, mostly in Detroit, and expects to hire another four or five this year.
Blondy says her business has proven popular in the suburbs, especially with people who don't often frequent the inner city. She is considering opening another location in the suburbs in the not-too-distant future to take advantage of that demand but isn’t actively moving toward doing that this year.
"At this time it's not a serious consideration but if a great opportunity comes up I will consider it," Blondy says.
Source: Liz Blondy, owner of Canine To Five
Writer: Jon Zemke
Read more about Metro Detroit's growing entrepreneurial ecosystem at SEMichiganStartup.com.
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