The first store on Mud Bay Road was originally called "Mud Bay Grainery", named after the previous occupant of the building, a health food store called "The Grainery".[5] The owners soon re-spelled the business to "Mud Bay Granary", referencing the storage building for grain. In 2000, they acquired eight more stores and became a chain.[4] In 2002, the company dropped the word "Granary" to become "Mud Bay" as it is now known.[5] The chain expanded to 13 or 14 by 2004,[4] and continued to expand through the 2009 recession: 17 stores by June 2009,[6] 33 by 2015,[7] 56 in Oregon and Washington by 2020.[8][9] It was named Pet Business retailer of the year, 2015.[10]
In 2015, Mud Bay announced that it would start an employee-stock ownership plan for its employees, effectively making it an employee-owned company.[11] The co-CEOs, siblings Lars Wulff and Marissa Wulff, were inspired by The Great Game of Business to do so. On August 20, 2015, the owners and employees signed a "declaration of worker ownership" at the company's annual meeting at Green River Community College. For a few years after that, many of the company's decisions were made by a team called "The 20", most of whom were elected by employee-owner peers. Since the company reached over 500 employees in 2020, most decisions are now made by the executives, with the goal of standardizing all the 50+ stores.[12][1]
