A ‘TAIL’ OF TWO YEARS

Jo Mulgrew, Marketing Director at Fish4Pets Ltd. reflects on being a UK dog food manufacturer exporting worldwide during the global crisis, the highs, the lows, the changes it has made to their business, their future plans and expectations for the UK dog food industry in 2022 and beyond.

“Fish4Pets® is a relatively small, UK based organisation with around 50 employees. We champion fish as the ‘perfect protein’ for dogs and cats, due to the powerful health benefits of omega 3 as an anti-inflammatory, supporting coat and skin condition, mobility, and cardiac health.

We are subsidiary of Norwegian agricultural co-operative, and ethical trade champion, FKRA.

Like many in the pet food industry, we are thankful for the positives our industry has seen in the UK during these testing times. Our size meant that we could be agile, move quickly to the changes in our environment with the support of our versatile staff and business owners. As food manufacturers and key workers, we were able to keep our business open, and we worked hard to rapidly introduce new health and safety measures, shift patterns and home working to ensure all our staff and customers were safe.

The rapid growth in pet ownership was another positive impact on our business, one we knew was not afforded by all organisations. In the early months, as pet ownership grew, panic buying prevailed and consumers sought alternative sources to supermarkets for their pet food, such as shopping at their local independent retailers or online, and as a result we experienced a significant growth in sales.

However, these positives soon lead to additional operational challenges. Any previous forecast modelling was eroded, and we quickly suffered material shortages as well as trying to increase operational headcount, whilst adhering to social distancing challenges.

And enter herewith the ‘Brexit Effect’. Rising costs of containers in and out of Europe, lengthy shipping delays, coupled with manufacturing interruptions around the world caused by the pandemic meant that sourcing packaging and other materials lead to huge resource and time constraints. Not to mention trying to supply our overseas customer base. Not only were we selling out of lines, getting goods produced and back out to consumers was taking three times as long as before, and costing three times as much.

Whilst I write about the challenges the external environment brought to our business, particularly the reactive pressure on our operational staff; our sales, marketing and product development teams were all learning to adapt and think pro-actively behind the scenes from their dining tables and spare bedrooms via this previously little-known Microsoft product called Teams.

We were able to continue our ambitious product launch programme throughout 2020 and 2021 and gained huge insights into customer behaviour around pet ownership and feeding.

In terms of supply, we don’t see these global challenges ending overnight, but we do see the supply chain working hard together to adapt and become more robust to such threats in the future. As a company, we have restructured, putting more resource and processes into the supply chain to ensure we have less reliance on one supplier for leading components. This month we have opened a new, state of the art, eco-friendly distribution facility born out of challenges we faced during recent years, enabling us to store more stock and introduce more products.

As a manufacturer offering a unique selling point to our customers, championing fish as the only protein source in our foods, we are fortunate that we will be looking to grow our business throughout 2022 and beyond. We don’t believe the pet food market is overcrowded, we believe there is room for greater segmentation as pet ownership grows and interest in their well-being increases.

Experience during these past two years has not only impacted the way we work, but also heavily shaped our new product introduction programme for 2022 and beyond.

In terms of growing trends, we predict more and more emphasis on healthy, balanced diets for our pets. With the growing plant-based trend in the human food market, and increasing interest in environmental impact, we believe pet owners could move further away from red meat as protein source for dogs and cats and lean towards alternatives.  With many owners still questioning the validity of vegan and vegetarian food for pets, our pescatarian approach appeals because it fits their requirements for a tasty, healthy protein choice, with well-known health benefits and in a way that addresses environmental considerations too.

Through research and customer feedback, in terms of food types in the dog food market, we are continuing to see consumers wanting to add moisture and whole ingredients in their dog food, whilst still looking for the convenience of complete kibble. We have seen a hugely successful response to our new Fish4Dogs® Complementary Wet Can range for use as ‘toppers’ on kibble and have just launched our new Fish4Dogs® Fish Flakes range.

We are also seeing continued growth in age segmentation across both dog food and treats, as owners become more aware of the needs of their pets at different life stages. The increasing education amongst dog owners is also leading to huge growth in health supplements and supportive products for our canine companions. We have expanded our Fish4Dogs® Support+ range to include products with additional health boosting ingredients aimed at supporting common complaints such as skin and coat condition and digestive health. We are delighted to have recently been awarded the Your Dog Best Health Product 2022 Award for our popular Fish4Dogs® Support+ Salmon Oil.

We are seeing greater segmentation in the dog treat sector. Like food, owners are much more conscious of making healthier treat choices for their pets. Consumers are becoming educated through the media and popular television programmes about the effects of weight gain in pets, and the important role appropriate treating can play in effective training.

We have one of the largest ranges of dog treats in the industry. All our treats are gluten free and are made free of chicken, beef, pork, and lamb, helpful for dogs with intolerances. We embarked on extensive voice-of-the-customer research when rebranding in recent years, and we were overwhelmed by the findings. Following the research, we restructured our dog treats into four unique categories ‘TRAINING’, ‘DENTAL’, ‘SUPPORT+’ and ‘LOVE’.

In our TRAINING range we have treats for puppies and adults designed to be stimulating and rewarding when working with your dog. We’ve taken size, smell and calories into consideration when designing these treats, so treats in this range can be used many times during a training session.

Our DENTAL range, including the original and highly successful Sea Jerky on which our business was first established, substantially supports a dog’s dental health. Delicious, 100% white fish skin treats that are naturally abrasive in texture, which can help with tartar on teeth.

SUPPORT+ is our range of treats and supplements that not only taste great, but they also include selected additives to support health considerations.

LOVE is our range name for Part of the Fish4Dogs® family the treats we’ve designed to help you show your dog how much you adore them. This range offers unique variety, including crunchy biscuit-style fish treats, a variety of tasty fish wraps and the more unusual, but equally delicious, dried squid discs.

We have seen these categories go from strength to strength in recent times, not only due to the success of their natural ingredients and palatability, but through effective branding and category segmentation, our retailers can now offer a clear differentiation and treat product unique to the needs of each dog owner.

Throughout 2022 and beyond, we aim to continue our support to our UK trade customers with personal service through our dedicated team of sales representatives and highly knowledgeable customer service team. We will also continue to provide well-researched, high quality new products, as well as effective marketing solutions such as point-of-sale material to support sales. Overall, whilst the past two years have been tough, our business will never be the same again, we have learnt some valuable skills and lessons which we endeavour to use to further develop and grow our business, and that of our distributors throughout the coming years.”

For more information on Fish4Pets® products, or if you are considering becoming a stockist, please call (01299) 252 352.