A pet food company selling possum-meat products as an alternative has just completed a multi-million dollar upgrade of its Te Puke factory in hopes of becoming the world's leader in pet food.

Addiction Foods co-founder Jerel Kwek with the bushtail products containing possum.

Addiction Foods co-founder Jerel Kwek says the recent up-grade is part of the company's vision to become the world's largest, most reliable and productive pet food producer, exporting from the Port of Tauranga.

'Te Puke is ideal (for the plant) because we needed to be close to an export port and because the old dairy factory building was tall enough to house all of our equipment,” he says.

From the start the company aimed to use wild or free-range meats in its products and has an established network of hunters who supply it with up to 100 tonnes of possum meat - or around 50,000 possum - a year, trapped from the wild.

However, brushtail, not possum, is the name used on the pet foods the company sells.

'Possum is a highly nutritious food for animals and we use every part of the body except the fur. Possum meat contains higher levels of Omega 3 and 6 fatty acids than other red meats and these fatty acids are essential to pet health.”

Among the possum products is 'Perfect Summer Brushtail” for dogs, described as a 'nutritious and delectable recipe combines Brushtail meat with nutrient rich sunflower seeds, papayas, spinach and potatoes”.

'In the wild, cats and dogs eat the gut of their prey as well as the meat, which is why we incorporate vegetables in our products,” says Jerel, who owns a 16-year-old golden retriever and a 15-year-old poodle, who both eat his company's foods.

The multi-million dollar Te Puke up-grade also marks the launch of the company's products in New Zealand.

Previously the canned, dried and raw dehydrated foods the factory produces have all been exported.

'Overseas high quality pet foods are sold through specialists retail outlets but most pet foods in New Zealand are sold through supermarkets.

'The up-grade to the factory means we are able to offer our products, in New Zealand, at a competitive price,” says Jerel.

The company has also established a New Zealand distributor.

'We increased our capacity by over 30 times with our factory upgrade which employs 15 staff, up from four a year ago, and is now New Zealand's largest dry pet food plant. With such strict regulations over manufacturing and a clean environment, New Zealand is the best place in the world to produce healthy, high quality pet food. We're thrilled to increase our production here in New Zealand.

'Currently the majority of dry pet food is imported from overseas and we've identified a big gap in the market for good quality New Zealand made dry pet food both here and internationally.”

The pet food manufacturing and distribution business was co-founded by Jerel, who lives in Seattle, and a Singapore-based veterinarian and animal nutritionist in 2002.

The Te Puke plant began production in 2006 and produces 70 per cent of the company's pet food products for export. The rest is manufactured across several facilities in the US, Canada and Australia.

Jerel says he always wanted to be a vet but his early entrepreneurial ventures were mainly in technology.

'I have always loved animals and was concerned that much of the pet food available was 'junk” food full of artificial colours and flavours so saw there was an opportunity to establish a pet food company which produced nutritious foods.”

The Addiction range includes pet foods made from kangaroo, eel, New Zealand salmon, and

free-range meats including venison, beef, lamb, chicken and ingredients that are free from hormones and steroids.