Pet food fit for human consumption is the latest trend amongst dog lovers in the UK and worldwide.
Yorkshire-based Pure Pet Food are providing high quality meals for dogs and ship thousands of delicious meals to pooches across the world every month.
Meals are delivered in dehydrated and freeze-dried form with dog owners simply adding ways to create convenient, low processed meals for their four-legged friends.
Pure Pet Food was set up in 2012 by childhood friends Matthew Cockroft and Daniel Valdur using a £3000 overdraft.
Seven years later, the brand is fast becoming an industry leader, selling its innovative dehydration and freeze-dried human grade pet food to customers around the world and in major retailers, including Pets at Home.
Mat and Dan came up with the idea to create a wholesome dog food, made with completely natural ingredients but without any of the inconveniences that preparing a raw diet can entail.
After saving to buy a small dehydration machine, the pair produced their first pet food batch in Dan’s kitchen, and had friends and family members’ pets try them out.
The food went down a storm and demand grew quickly, allowing the company to move out of the kitchen and into a local food facility.
Today, the fresh and raw ingredients used in Pure Pet Food’s recipes are gently preserved at 4000sq ft Halifax facility.
This process gently removes the moisture in the ingredients which leaves the meals around four times as dense as nutrients, vitamins and minerals as you’d find fresh food.
Customers simply add warm water, stir and serve, creating a low processed meal in minutes.
This unique process gives Pure all the advantages of both wet and dry food – preventing bloating and reducing the risk of dehydration, whilst being super easy to store and boasting a month shelf life.
And the standard is set so high that the Pure facility is actually regulated by both the human and animal food authorities.
Sales figures have grown almost 900% over the last four years alone, and the company now employs nine full-time staff, having created seven new jobs to date.
The product range boasts 16 different products including complete recipes, mixer recipes, starter packs, treats and toppings. Pure Pet Food has become particularly popular for pets with ailments like sensitive skin or stomachs, as recipes are grain-free, low-processed and made with human grade ingredients.
The company recently secured £2m investment from NVM Private Equity (NVM) which will help accelerate its plans to make healthy choices for pet owners easy and accessible.
The plan is to use the funding to support the brand’s rapid growth, whilst launching new products, adding to their team and expanding their offering throughout Europe.
Pure Pet Food co-founder, Mat said: “Although traditional dry biscuit and tinned pet food provides a cheap and often economical option, owners are becoming increasingly aware of the low-quality ingredients and extreme heat and pressure used during manufacture.
“Healthier alternatives include raw and fresh cooked pet food, which although provide far healthier levels of nutrition, come at a much higher price too. We wanted to provide the best of both worlds – pet food that is healthy and low processed without the hefty price point.
“The response we’ve received over the last seven years has been phenomenal and customers always getting in touch to tell us how Pure has helped with their pets’ various illnesses and ailments. Raw feeders and home cooks are even keeping a pack of Pure food in the cupboard, for who they forgot to defrost their meat or don’t have the time to prepare their own meals.”
Dan added: “We’re proud to create pet food good enough for human consumption – something we even demonstrated on Dragons Den a few years ago, when Peter Jones asked us to prove it. Because the overarching ethos that drove the brand at the start still stands – why would you feed your pet something you wouldn’t eat yourself?”
For more information about Pure Pet Food, you can visit www.purepetfood.co.uk.
