The Pet Industry Federation announced Huskaloo as the winner of its Innovation of the Year Award in front of attendees gathered at its Business of Pets conference at Cranfield Management Development Centre.

Huskaloo fought off competition from a finalist pool of 10 innovative products and services, all of whom had to deliver a presentation about their innovation to those attending the event. CompanionPass and HayPigs Pig n’ Mix treats range came in joint second place. 

Huskaloo, from company Tailor-Grace, is the world’s first eco-friendly cat litter and is made from coconut husks, a by-product of the coconut industry. CompanionPass is a dog access solution to allow dogs into more public premises and HayPigs Pig n’ Mix treats are confectionary-themed foraging treats for small animals. 

The Business of Pets conference was a new event aimed at pet businesses that wanted to find out about the various types of finance and investment and learn about a range of issues such as Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) strategies, intellectual property, legal pitfalls when running a company and the trends to look out for in the UK pet industry. 

The conference was supported by MHA, with Mark Lumsdon-Taylor, MHA Partner, co-chairing the event, with Nigel Baker, PIF CEO. 

Nigel said: “The 10 finalists delivered fantastic presentations over the course of yesterday and today to persuade conference attendees that their product/service was the most innovative. The knowledge, passion and creativity shone through from each of the finalists and many had clearly worked hard to ensure their innovation had strong sustainable credentials which were central to its values.

“The presentations provided an excellent backdrop and context for the brilliant talks which followed over the two days and covered the different types of funding options, intellectual property, pet industry data insights and innovations in the UK. The industry clearly welcomed this unique event and we look forward to delivering something similar in the future.”