Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | AUGUST 24, 2026 13 AT A GLANCE Oma's Pride/Miller Foods Inc. Industry: Pet Food Manufacturing Top Executive: Adam DeJulius, President & CEO HQ: 308 Arch Road, Avon Employees: 40 Website: omaspride.com New Breed 75-year-old Avon family business finds growth in fresh pet food market Oma's Pride initially focused on bulk customers and breeders rather than the broader consumer market. "They wanted to keep it small and manageable and not get over their skis," DeJulius said. Miller Foods still maintains its legacy turkey business, with sales largely concentrated around Thanks- giving. Many commercial customers purchase the company's turkeys for employees, and Big Y carries them in its stores. Much of the money the company makes from turkey sales goes to its nonprofit arm, Miller Farms Cares, which partners with Connecticut Foodshare and other area food banks. Fourth generation returns DeJulius grew up around the family business, but initially pursued a career elsewhere. After attending the Univer- sity of Connecticut, he joined The Hartford, where he spent about a decade working in areas including sales, underwriting and process improvement. He later moved into management consulting at Accenture. By 2019, DeJulius faced a decision. Older members of his family were approaching retirement, while he and his wife were considering starting a family of their own. He could continue investing time in his corporate career or return to Avon and see what he could make of the family business. He looked at the pet food market and saw that Oma's Pride was well positioned to capitalize on a growing trend. "I did an analysis of the business," he said. "My ambition was to say, the humanization of pet food is here. There's an opportunity. We have great products, super-sticky customers." He decided to go for it, returning alongside his brother Nick to help his mother run the business, with a focus on growing its e-commerce segment. And then, just a year later, the COVID-19 pandemic hit, bringing both opportunities and challenges for the pet food business. The cost of meat, cardboard, plastic and fuel — which DeJulius By Harriet Jones hjones@hartfordbusiness.com A 75-year-old Avon family business that got its start selling eggs door to door has expanded significantly in recent years as it capitalizes on increased consumer demand for fresh, raw pet food. Oma's Pride pet food and its legacy sister company, Miller Foods, have grown from about 15 employees in 2019 to roughly 40 today, driven by increased direct-to-consumer sales and distribution through independent pet retailers. Now leading that effort is fourth-generation family member Adam DeJulius, who became CEO in January and works from the same office once occupied by his great-grandmother, Margaret "Oma" Miller, who founded the company with her husband, Earl, in the 1950s. The expansion represents the latest transformation for a company that spent much of its history in the poultry business. Oma's Pride now produces between 50,000 and 60,000 pounds of raw pet food each week at its 10,000-square- foot Avon processing facility. The products are frozen and transported to a second company facility in Bristol for storage, packaging and distribution. The growth comes as pet owners increasingly treat their animals as members of the family and pay closer attention to ingredients and nutrition — a broader industry shift commonly described as the "humanization" of pets. For DeJulius, that trend represented an opportunity to continue to trans- form what was once a relatively small part of the family operation into its primary growth engine. Poultry to pet food The family business didn't start with pet food but with human nutrition. In the 1950s, Margaret Miller and her husband, Earl, known as "Pa," bought the 7-acre property in Avon where the business still operates. The couple raised chickens and sold eggs door to door. That operation eventually grew into a sizable turkey farm, supplying poultry to grocery stores, schools and institutions including UConn, the University of Hartford and Hartford Hospital. As U.S. Department of Agriculture regulations tightened in the 1970s, the company shifted from raising poultry to processing and distributing it. Miller Foods continued handling, packing and selling turkeys, but part- nered with other growers to supply the birds. Meanwhile, the pet food side of the business was started — almost by accident — by DeJulius' grandmother, Sandy. "She raised llamas and golden retrievers up in the woods in Massa- chusetts. And she had a sick dog," he said. This was in the 1990s, at the start of the raw pet food movement, and Sandy decided to use the food-pro- cessing equipment at the Miller Foods plant to make natural dog food for her golden retriever, Harley. "Thirty days later Harley was doing flyball classes," DeJulius said. "Friends were like, 'Can you make some for us?'" Oma's Pride was born. Initially, the pet food operation was a sideline, with products made in small batches and sold through the company's Avon storefront, as well as at dog shows and farmers markets. Over time, however, changes in the traditional food distribution industry altered the trajectory of the family business. As that industry consol- idated and margins got squeezed, Miller Foods began exiting much of its distribution business and put greater emphasis on pet food. Continued on next page Adam DeJulius, president and CEO of Oma's Pride and Miller Foods, stands inside the company's Avon pet food production facility. HBJ Photos | Steve Laschever Adam DeJulius at the company headquarters. Behind him is a photo of family members also involved in running Miller Farms.

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