Know Before You Go
The factory is located just east of Fourth Ave., east of downtown Gladstone.
Gladstone, Michigan
Hoegh Pet Casket Company
World's largest pet casket company brings in up to $5 million per year in revenue.
Tucked into a low L-shaped building with one wing holding the office and the other holding a warehouse and manufacturing center, the Hoegh Pet Casket Company is still owned by the Hoegh family, who still give tours of the building.
The tours, which are held Monday through Friday, start in the showroom, where a complete pet funeral seems to always be in progress. The Hoegh company offers caskets, floral arrangements, urns, candles, and velvet paintings of your beloved pet.
Hoegh displays seven different sizes of caskets made for animals of all shapes and breeds. They range from a small Styrofoam casket used for cremations and the burial of small birds all the way up to ones constructed of advanced materials with hermetic sealing qualities. “Good enough to use for time capsules,” the Hoegh company’s brochure claims.
As the tour continues, a video is shown that explains burying pets in your backyard is against the law and then guests are led into the sewing room and metal shop, where memorial plaques are built and displayed.
The factory employs approximately a dozen people and is estimated to bring in somewhere between $2.5 and $5 million every year. Caskets retail between $15 for small pets all the way up to $350 plush-lined casket for something the size of a St. Bernard.
Contributed by
Nicholas Jackson
Sources
- Roadside America: Pet Casket Factory Tours: http://www.roadsideamerica.com/story/2122
- Hunt's Guide to Michigan's Upper Peninsula: http://hunts-upguide.com/gladstone_hoegh_pet_casket_company.html
