Pooch & Mutt chose to launch its new range of grain-free, functional, CANF (Condition Appropriate Nutrient Feeding) dog foods at Interzoo 2014 and that turned out to be a great decision with orders coming in from the UK, Europe and as far a field as Hong Kong.
Guy Blaskey, Pooch & Mutt’s founder and MD, said: “The response to the Pooch & Mutt range was fantastic. Our packaging, which recently won The Gold Award for packaging at The European Design Awards, drew people in to the stand, and when they were there they were very impressed by the concept. This interest turned into a significant amount of business.”
There were a lot of dog foods being launched at the show, but many of them were very same-y, essentially a copy of a concept created by a competitor company. Pooch & Mutt seemed to be the only company looking to bring something genuinely new to the dog food market.
Guy continued: “I never wanted to launch a dog food, as it is an extremely competitive market place, but I saw an obvious gap, that no one else was filling. There has been huge growth in the grain-free, healthy-ingredient sector of the market, but what happens when the dogs fed on these foods develop problems, like arthritis, as they get older?
"A vet is going to tell them to switch to ‘prescription’ food for mobility, but these foods have a lower meat content and are full of grain. This is not what owners want to feed their dogs. At their most basic, the Pooch & Mutt foods are both functional and grain-free, with high meat content.
"When I got to Interzoo I expected to see that someone else had spotted this obvious gap. There were many other grain-free foods and quite a few functional foods, but no other foods that are both grain-free and functional. The fact that no one else had spotted this gap is probably why we did so well at the show.”
The CANF concept is far more than just functional, grain-free food. It is about putting the correct nutrients in the food for a dogs condition.
To Pooch & Mutt it makes no sense to have a ‘mobility’ food with chicken as the protein source, their ‘Move Easy’ food uses salmon as the protein source because salmon is rich in Omega 3, which helps mobility. They then add a full range of joint supplements including; glucosamine, chondroitin, green lipped mussel and rose hip to create the complete food, most appropriate for dogs with joint problems.
Similarly the weight loss food “Slim & Slender” uses chicken as the primary protein source, as it is a low fat protein source. The full range of supplements added to this include CLA, l-carnitine and psyllium, all of which help weight loss.
