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St. Charles County Business Record

By Allison Retka

A local pet toy distributor is suing the maker of popular fur removal tool for shedding the distributor after it helped get the tool on QVC and into PetSmart and PETCO stores.

Chesterfield-based Creative Marketing and Sales Inc. claims it took the makers of the FURminator from a small-time Fenton operation selling to local groomers to a nationally known specialty product.

The FURminator is a hand-held de-shedding tool that removes a pet's undercoat and loose hair while leaving the top coat of fur intact, according to the product's Web site. The site features photos of dogs and cats sitting placidly amidst piles of their hair, successfully removed with the tool in a single sitting.

Creative Marketing and Sales, which made a splash in 2001 with its own hit product, the Talk to Me Treatball, asserts in the lawsuit that the company used its contacts in the pet product industry to produce, ship and market the FURminator nationwide.

But FURminator Inc. used the services and perks and then went around the marketing company to avoid its 30 percent commission rate, the lawsuit claims.

"FURminator denies the allegations contained in MACS petition," the company said in a statement through its attorney, Steven Garlock of Thompson Coburn. "Furminator will vigorously defend this suit."

FURminator also said it had properly paid Creative Marketing and Sales for the sales it made on the company's behalf.

The business relationship between the two companies started in February 2004, the lawsuit said. By April, Creative Marketing and Sales claims it had negotiated a deal with the QVC for the program to sell $38,000 of FURminator tools on-air.

A distribution and sales agreement was signed June 1, 2005, by FURminator inventors Angie and David Porter, and Creative Marketing and Creative Sales founder Rod Herrenbruck, according to court documents.

At FURminator's request, the marketing company began pursuing deals with retailers like PetSmart and PETCO. But the relationship soured in October 2005 when Porter met with a PetSmart buyer to push the product directly, the suit said.

The suit also claims Creative Marketing and Sales developed a "skin and coat shed reduction treat" that FURminator appropriated and now sells as "deShedding dog treats." The treats, along with FURminator's use of discounted prices with several production and shipping companies, act as a "recognition" of the contract and evidence of FURminator's ongoing breach of the contact, the suit claims.

(c) 2006 St. Charles County Business Record. Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning. All rights Reserved.