Elkhart County is known as the RV Capital, but a unique new company is trying to help change the area's economic image. The company is called Pet Honor Casket and as the name suggests it makes caskets for our furry family members.
Bert Molner is CEO of Pet Honor Casket, an Elkhart County company started earlier this year making final resting places for Fluffy or Fido.
"That need is not being filled now,” said Molner. “So we've been, so far, exceeding and beating all of our projections and goals and we're very excited about that."
Molner is looking to take advantage of an untapped market while at the same time helping the local economy.
"In Elkhart County we build things and very few places on the planet do they build so many things as we do here,” said Molner. “So it just made it very easy that there's trained manufacturing, there's materials, there's transportation. All the key ingredients if you're going to launch a product. The best place to do that is right here in Elkhart County."
That's the same message local leaders are sending to other businesses in an effort to add to the county's image.
"We've worked really hard to try to develop new businesses outside the RV industry and this is just another indication that some of that is working," said State Senator Carlin Yoder.
Right now Pet Honor Casket only has 5 people on staff. But Molner expects that to change in the coming months.
"Our projections are to produce a little over 50,000 products a year in the next 60 months and it's going to take people to build those,” said Molner. “And so we definitely expect rapid expansion."
The caskets come in 5 sizes and start at 199-dollars. They can be bought at several local funeral homes and Molner says they're trying to get them in stores like Pet Supplies Plus.