Cardinal Laboratories
Your Partner In A Professional And Responsible Pet Industry

Cardinal Laboratories was founded in Los Angeles in 1948, and today occupies a sprawling, modern and environmentally responsible manufacturing and research campus that covers more than 73,000 square feet in Azusa, California.  A tireless innovator in improving the quality of pet care products, Cardinal has spearheaded numerous innovations since its founding, including one of the first successful whitening shampoos, the Crazy Pet line of fun fragrance shampoos and sprays, and Pet Botanics, one of the first product lines in the pet industry to emphasize natural ingredients.

More recently, Cardinal introduced its Gold Medal line of pet shampoos, featuring Cardoplex, a unique patent-pending formulation that utilizes fruit acids and fast-acting proteins that result in shorter rinse off and drying time for pets.  By reducing the time it takes to rinse and dry a pet, Cardoplex makes bath time less stressful. This not only enhances the lives of dogs, it makes their human companions more likely to bathe them regularly, which contributes to good health.

When Tony De Vos, the current president of Cardinal joined the company, it had 8-10 employees. In 1981, De Vos assumed the presidency of Cardinal Laboratories after his friend, mentor and father-in-law Cardinal president, Larry Sica, passed away. De Vos started his tenure with advice he had received from his father-in-law “We never make a mistake until it goes out the door." That emphasis on quality control and having systems in place to catch mistakes before they're shipped out is still the foundation of Cardinal's relationship with its customers.

Chief among those customers, particularly in the early days of the company, were the groomers. They relied on Cardinal to provide the products they needed and quality they could depend on. De Vos has never forgotten the support he received from those groomers, which is why the company sponsors the Cardinal Crystal Grooming Achievement Awards, presented each year at Intergroom, the largest international dog grooming show in the world. It's also one of the reasons De Vos is so active in industry trade associations. He's a two-time President of WWPSA. He wants to give back something to the people who helped him out when he needed it.

He believes that service to the customers is paramount, "Even if they (customers) order today and need it shipped today, which would be considered above and beyond the normal routine, we do our best to help them out. That's the only way we can all survive today -helping each other out."

De Vos also attributes much of the company's success to the people who work there. "I want to give credit where credit is due. My management team and all my employees are qualified to do their jobs and they do them well. I feel confident that my people are watching out after their company. It's important to them too."

Employees at the company say similar things about De Vos. They clearly admire and respect him, enjoy his sense of humor and appreciate his warmth. Comments they've made about their boss include, "He always has a smile; he's always glad to see you," and "Tony's had some days when I thought, if it were me, I'd go bury my head in the sand. But Tony always faced his problems. He's always here. He's persistent and he sticks to something until it's resolved. I've really learned something just by being around Tony every day."