British company SureFlap, maker of microchip-operated pet doors, is now proving to be a big hit in Germany, winning a ‘most innovative product of the year for cats’ in a nationwide poll...

Andy Bank, commercial director of Cambridge-based SureFlap, is delighted with the accolade. “We have spent considerable effort in ensuring that SureFlap products are designed to the highest standards of robustness and reliability. Aesthetics are also very important as the pet door is positioned in a door or glass window so it is very noticeable.

“To get this endorsement and vote of confidence from pet retailers in Germany has been very well received by our engineering team.”

The SureFlap Microchip Cat Flap was developed by Cambridge physicist Dr Nick Hill who had become irritated by a neighbour’s cat that came in through the cat flap to eat his cat’s food and frighten his pet. Dr Hill soon realised there was a need for a product that would stop this from happening and there wasn’t a good solution on the market. 

Dr Hill was determined to develop something that was well designed and reliable, as well as cheap and easy to manufacture. After three years of extensive research and development the finished product, the first SureFlap Cat Flap was launched in 2008. All of SureFlap’s pet doors are microchip-operated and will only unlock if a resident cat with its unique identifying chip comes within scanning range.

Such is the company’s attention to detail that it used raccoon product testers to ensure that the SureFlap Microchip Pet Door was impenetrable by wild animals. 

SureFlap was awarded the ‘most innovative product of the year for cats’ in a poll of readers from the publication PETonline.