Inside Kendrick Perkins’ multimillion-dollar Frenchie business
By
Ryan Glasspiegel
July 22, 2022 9:08am
Updated
Kendrick Perkins, a former NBA champion and star analyst at ESPN, could very well make more money from his Frenchie business than he does in broadcasting over the next five-plus years.
About four years ago, Perkins was approached by his brother-in-law Thomas Alpough with a succinct business pitch: “Man, we need to get into this dog-breeding business.”
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Perkins has always been a fan of dogs and had them as pets, but did not know what Alpough was talking about.
“What dog-breeding business?” he asked.
“Frenchies,” Alpough answered. “I’m telling you, man, it’s the best thing popping.”
At the time, Perkins brushed off the idea, but his interest was piqued when Alpough acquired a male and female on his own, bred them and had a litter of puppies.
“I need you to post this on your Instagram. Let’s start it up. I don’t need money from you. And we’re going to sell them,” Alpough told Perkins.
The six puppies ranged in price from $8,000 to $20,000 apiece, and they sold out in three days, for a total of nearly $60,000.
Alpough bought another female dog, and another litter of seven puppies emerged, and they sold out right away again.
“I was like ‘OK, you really getting money right now,'” Perkins said. “Now he had my attention and I’m all the way in.”
The brothers-in-law formalized a partnership in a company called Big League Exotics (BLE), built up a kennel, social media pages and began reinvesting the proceeds from the litters into purchasing more adult Frenchies to breed.
BLE is a four-person company: Perkins, Alpough, Dung Nguyen — a serial entrepreneur who works with Alpough on other ventures including real estate — and John Shenkir, another businessman who struck up a friendship with Alpough after the two met at the vet.
Now, BLE has 42 dogs and Perkins estimates their sale value to cumulatively be about $4 million-$5 million. The dogs are spread between their own compound, and other families and kennels who could be eventual partners in the business. There is a significant emphasis placed on the dogs’ welfare and quality of life.
There are cutting-edge strategies to deploy — it’s not just as simple as getting two dogs to fornicate and raking in the profits. There is a constant need to stay ahead of the curve in terms of genetics, which means anticipating future breeds that will be in demand even if they don’t exist yet.
“Frenchies. I’m telling you, man, it’s the best thing popping.”
“Originally, Frenchies started, and there were black and white Frenchies. Then, all of a sudden, they started coming out with lilac Frenchies, that were bluish-white, with polka dots and things of that nature,” Perkins said. “Then you have the Merles [which resemble Dalmations’ patterns]. But now you have fluffy Frenchies, which are high-dollar. Fluffy Frenchies have fur, different colors, it’s the new wave. Those dogs start out at $100K-$150K.
“We started developing relationships. I started learning more about the DNA, the color, the structure — the things that people want. And now we’re to the point where we actually have dogs that are in our kennel that are worth $250K, $500K — and we even have one that’s worth $1 million.”
And this brings us to Jay-Z, a pink husky fluffy purchased from a UK-based breeder named Diego Sanchez, whom Perkins refers to as the “Godfather of Frenchies.” Sanchez works with his life and business partner, Susan Bello, running a firm called Deziner Bullz.
Jay-Z has pink fur and spots like a panda bear, and is a pioneer in his bloodline which had never before been seen in the United States. His purchase price? As Dr. Evil once said, one million dollars.
nypost.com
