FALLS CHURCH, VA — Laura Tartaro-McGowan and her son, Ian McGowan come from different work backgrounds — nursing and retail, respectively. Tartaro-McGowan was director of Northern Virginia’s first outpatient surgical center in the 1980s and later worked for Home Health. But what brought them together to collaborate on a business was their family dogs.
Their first dog grew into five, and the family looked for ways to take care of the dogs and manage their weight.
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“We wanted to we wanted to make sure that what we were doing was healthy and what was best for our animals,” Ian McGowan told Patch. “And that’s when we started looking into solutions for nutrition and solutions for healthier treats, and things of that nature.”
The North Arlington mother and son came across Pet Wants, an emerging health pet business concept, at a farmers market and decided to open their own franchise. Pet Wants Falls Church is currently operating as a mobile unit that pops up at events and offers delivery to local communities like Falls Church, Annandale, Alexandria, Arlington and Tysons. They are looking to open a brick-and-mortar location in Falls Church around late 2024.
Pet Wants focuses on small-batch pet foods with natural ingredients, vitamins and minerals to provide furry friends with balanced meals.
“What Pet Wants provides which is different from the rest, makes us stand out, makes us unique, is that our foods are one protein, but the rest of the food is mostly the same in each,” said Laura Tartaro-McGowan. “Like if you have a chicken and brown rice or lamb and brown rice. So all you’re doing is changing the protein…It’s not going to upset their stomach.”
Since opening the mobile unit in October, Pet Wants Falls Church has participated in dog events in places like McLean, Springfield and Fairfax. They’re looking at different locations around Falls Church that would be a good fit for their brick-and-mortar location.
“There are so many people that have pets. We are extremely excited to bring our product to the public,” said Tartaro-McGowan. “One of the benefits of our product for a dog is that you can rotationally feed them, so I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to eat the same thing every single day, so neither does your dog.”
Pet Wants, a franchise with over 140 locations in the U.S., has more plans to expand in the DC region.
“We believe that the demographics of this region are perfectly in-tune with Pet Wants mission of pet health and wellness,” said Pet Wants president DeNita Carani. “Our data indicates that northern Virginia and Southern Maryland have the capacity to support at least 5 additional Pet Wants in the area. By adding Ian and Laura’s business to our current franchise owners in the region we are able to serve more pet parents with slow cooked, fresh pet food along with treats and chews made to focus on pet health and wellness.”
The mother and son say owning a business is challenging but rewarding.
“We work well together. I have a different set of expertise than my son does. He has all the retail. I have all the background from administration,” said Tartaro-McGowan. “So we actually complement each other very well. You know, so we’re working on it. It’s fun and scary all at the same time.”
Pet owners can stay up to date with Pet Wants Falls Church’s upcoming pop-ups and anticipated location opening in November or December 2024 on its website and social media.
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