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Natural dog company sees fortunes rise
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| Lisa Jazani |
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Since its launch just over six months ago, Health Mutt has grown impressively into a retail business that puts the wellbeing of dogs at the top of its priorities. So everything it manufacturers and sells fulfils the brief of catering for a pet's physical, mental and emotional needs. And even the company name is a play on the words 'Health Nut'. Lisa Jazani is the brains behind this venture and she spoke exclusively to Pet Trade Xtra about her growing business.
How did it all begin?
Our story can go back a few years to the time when my family ran Cardiff Guinea Pig rescue. We would take in unwanted guinea pigs and aim to rehome them. When you work in rescue you take in animals that are often in a weakened state. They need rehabilitation in many areas. Some need to be tamed, others come poorly with skin complaints, hair loss and malnutrition. These need nursing and we quickly began to learn what could be done naturally for the animals in our care to help them come back to full strength. We did this for a couple of years.
Then last year we took in a 'free to a good home' dog from one of the local free papers. We were very interested in rescue and due to the fact that often dogs are given away free and picked up by people who use them for dog fighting we would try and convince people to surrender them to legitimate rescues. Bella was one of these dogs but the people abandoning her wouldn't go through the proper channels so we took her in. Bella had a number of issues, she suffered severe separation anxiety and couldn't be left for any time at all without flinging herself at the door, barking and crying. She also had bowel issues due to malnutrition and incorrect feeding and had very little hair on her back end. She needed help.
Her mental and emotional problems were so great we decided as a family that a kennel environment would cause her further anxiety and instead we kept her and began researching everything that could be done to help Bella recover from her earlier life. This involved lots of time, patience and money. We must have trialed and used so many relaxation products, all kinds of tools that would keep her occupied while we were out, music that would soothe her and keep her calm, food that could be used to help her heal and relax and different soothing shampoos to look after her skin problems. I took a course in animal aromatherapy and began to use the skills I had developed while working in rescue to help all of my dogs.
 Did the experience of helping Bella give you the desire to start a natural dog company?
There wasn't anything out there that put all the information, products and a sense of community together in one place. So I began a focus group on Facebook with some of my dog loving friends. This community grew over time and I began to trial some of the natural products I was making on them – to good results. Eventually - with a small budget - I started Health Mutt as a proper business in October 2012 and we have gone from there.
What is the driving force behind the business?
The driving force behind the business is simply to provide physical, mental and emotional wellbeing to dogs. Even though we don't run a rescue any more we still fully believe and support rescue and the great work they do, so Health Mutt regularly organises fundraising activities to try and raise money for dogs in rescues throughout the UK together with offering discounts to rescue organisations. My whole family are the ones who keep Health Mutt moving.
My husband Cyrus is a web developer and he developed the logo, the website and all the designs of the product labels. He works full time but this is something that he does for me in the evenings on a voluntary basis. My children - Yasmin (10) and Eva (6) - are helpers when we are out and about. We have three shows coming up and they are 'Health Pups' at the shows - with my eldest making balloon animals to give out.
Do you deal direct with the consumer or do you also supply retail outlets?
We deal directly with the consumer as we want the experience of coming to Health Mutt to be as personal as possible. We believe that our customers' dogs are like family. So when you are trying to help or support your dog's wellbeing that experience should be a positive and personal one where you connect with someone who cares and will listen to you. We always try and take the time to speak to as many of our customers about their concerns and experiences as possible - and we've received very positive feedback on this too. People like this kind of 'community' experience and they love to tell us about their dogs and show us photos of their animals. It's very uplifting. We have tentatively begun to explore working with retail outlets and this is something that we are keen to do over the next 12 months. We have a couple of things in the pipeline.
Do you produce your own products as well as supplying those from other brands?
We are very aware that we aren't yet in a position to offer a complete spectrum of health and wellbeing products - so although we manufacture and sell our own products we also stock those we feel match our 'physical, mental and emotional wellbeing' motto. We select these carefully and if they don't meet the motto we don't stock them.
What else does your company offer?
We recently branched out into raw dog food under the name of Raw2Door. Health comes from within and after feeding our dogs a raw diet for a number of years and seeing first hand the effect it had on their health it was something we had to do. There are many benefits to be had from a raw diet - physical, mental and emotional. Turkey for example, contains tryptophan. Tryptophan can create a feeling of wellbeing and calm - Bella ate lots of raw turkey while going through her rehabilitation. And that's just one aspect of a natural diet. So Raw2Door seemed to be a natural road to go down to continue looking after dogs' health and wellbeing. As the name suggests we deliver raw food locally and use a courier for national deliveries.
To find out more visit www.healthmutt.co.uk
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