Tony Quinn got his first lesson in the pet food industry at the age of five when shown how to remove tongues and cheeks from sheep for feeding to his father’s dogs.

Hundreds of lessons later he’s the new owner of the Dubbo BestCare factory where 88 workers have been holding their breath since parent company Bush’s International went into receivership in late June.

This week Mr Quinn put up his hand as the successful purchaser of Bush’s assets including the Dubbo plant that he says has been “bleeding” money.

As a joint managing director of VIP Petfoods he’s committed to retaining 95 per cent of BestCare staff and turning around the fortunes of the factory through “world best practices” focused on efficient and reliable delivery to customers of a good-quality product.

Making pet food runs in the family, according to Mr Quinn who has turned VIP Petfoods into the world’s largest processor of kangaroo and chilled pet food.

“When I was five I was taking tongues and cheeks off sheep heads,” he said during a visit to Dubbo.

“My dad at 15 was a dog obedience champion of the UK and a well-known dog trainer.

“Because he kept winning, people would ask ‘what do you feed your dogs?’.”

Postman James Quinn would launch a small-scale pet food enterprise in Scotland.

At school leaving age son Tony had noted there wasn’t “a lot of money in it”, eventually finding success in other businesses before moving to New Zealand in the early 1980s where destiny dictated he be part of the “Quinn family pet food dynasty”.

“I saw these cows in the paddock and I knew I had to get back into pet food,” he said.

In the past 15 years he’s built a pet food empire boasting facilities across Australia and a share of a factory in the United States.

VIP Petfoods is run by Queensland-based Mr Quinn and his wife Christina, whose four adult children play significant roles in its operations.

Son Klark is set to keep watch on the Dubbo site that his dad says is “going to put a dent in the back account”.

But the talkative and to-the-point entrepreneur, who lived in a caravan until he was 14 years old and again when he married, says it is not money that drives him or brought him out of semi-retirement,

“One of my proudest moments will be when I show Mum and Dad around these plants,” he said.

VIP Petfoods will invest “several million dollars” in the Dubbo factory that will put fresh meat into dry food as a “co-packer”, filling orders for “other brands”.

kim.bartley@ruralpress.com