James Langan managing director, Natures Menu, talks to pbwnews
1. Has the increase in pet ownership during the pandemic helped to drive growth in your business?
Whilst 2021 was challenging for many UK industries, one industry that has seen continued growth is the dog food industry. The PFMA reported that there’s an astounding 24.7 million pet dogs and cats in the UK alone, which is largely down to the increase in pet ownership during lockdowns with consumers spending more time at home enabling them to welcome a dog or cat into the family. As a result, Natures Menu has reported impressive double-digit growth in sales, showcasing that raw feeding really is on the rise.
2. Has there been a move towards more pet owners feeding their animals with natural products?
Yes, this is a key macro trend in the pet food market as it is in human food. Consumers are recognising the benefits for the animal of feeding them a high quality, natural, minimally processed diet. Over the years we’ve noticed owners becoming more engaged with the health of their pets and therefore spending more time researching how a diet can improve overall wellbeing – which is incredibly encouraging to see the raw category benefit as a result.
3. There have been cases of raw pet food from other companies being recalled because of salmonella concerns, for instance. How do you maintain high level of food standards?
Natures Menu maintains high levels of food standards through careful sourcing of raw materials, a comprehensive, ongoing testing programme, and high hygiene and quality control standards throughout our supply chain.
Natures Menu is committed to promoting good hygiene practices for raw feeding and has worked closely with the PFMA on producing guidelines for the safe manufacture of raw pet food in the UK. The raw pet food industry is also carefully controlled by the relevant authorities and Natures Menu submits to all testing required, as well as abiding by all relevant EU legislation. As with handling any raw meat products, it should be stored separately and food preparation areas, hands and utensils kept clean.
4. How much emphasis do you put on sustainability throughout your business?
This is an increasing area of focus for us across all functions within the business and the wider group. We have made good progress on increasing the level of recyclability in our packaging, with Nature’s Variety on course to being fully recyclable by 2024.
We have also invested in solar panels on our site that generate over 10% of our energy and, in addition, we are currently investing in a new water polishing plant that will clean and reuse our wastewater. Also, the types of ingredients we use – high-quality meat, fruits and vegetables often meant for consumption in restaurants – is actually a form of upcycling, as they may have been thrown to waste if they weren’t used within pet food.
Moreover, our Especially for Cats range has now shifted from pouches to recyclable cans, helping us on our sustainability strategy. The improved packaging aims to clearly communicate the simple, natural ingredients to owners whilst offering a great visual impact on shelves.
5. Are the ingredients for your raw pet food sourced locally or do you have to get them from further afield?
We source locally, and from within the UK wherever we can. However, consistent supplies from British sources cannot always be guaranteed, so we do have to source certain items from our European neighbours.
6. Has Brexit helped or hindered your export sales?
Brexit has unfortunately hindered our export business. As a result of the regulations now imposed, we are no longer able to export our raw pet food to the EU – it is simpler for us to export to Dubai than Dublin! Even exporting to Northern Ireland is no longer simple, but we do continue to export our food where we can. Despite the challenges, we’re still recording double-digit growth as we focus on other areas of our business.
7. With the pet food sector being such a crowded marketplace, how do you manage to make your products stand out from the rest?
We have completed a lot of work to update and develop our branding over the last couple of years to make it as distinctive as possible, including the Natures Menu Especially for Cats range now featuring its own distinctive brand assets and revamped packaging. We also ensure that we communicate the quality and breadth of our range in an innovative way. Most recently this has been through our multimedia Get the Raw Food Look campaign, which highlighted fantastic examples of raw-fed dogs through a photography competition.
8. Has your home delivery service set you apart as a pet food supplier?
An effective D2C e-commerce channel has become a must since the start of the pandemic. Many other players in pet food industry, both manufacturers and retailers, have D2C operations too, so it would certainly be a major gap for us if we didn’t have a strong offering in this area. For Natures Menu, all our channels are important, and we make sure that we continually invest in these D2C channels as well as our independents and trade shops customers. We currently operate over 70 vans ourselves and make many thousands of deliveries each month to our customer base.
9. Has the Nature’s Variety brand done as well as expected?
Yes, the relaunch of Nature’s Variety has been successful. However, there’s work to be done to unleash the full potential of the brand. We need to continue to educate customers in order to encourage them to convert to our high-quality dry dog and cat range and also our highly innovative Freeze Dried range of dog food. As a sister brand to Natures Menu, we think that Nature’s Variety sits appropriately alongside, and increases our wider scope and market share.
10. What exciting plans have you got for 2022 and beyond?
2022 will be another busy year! We will be increasing our investment in our brands to keep growing the business and to keep driving consumer penetration for raw pet food. We will also be investing heavily in our factory to enable us to keep driving the business hard and keep building on our market leading position. Finally, we are continually investing in the people in the business with an ongoing programme to strengthen the team in all functions and at all levels – so we have a lot to look forward to!
