Henrietta Morrison, managing director and founder of Lily's Kitchen, has defended the company's decision to launch a new range called Lily's exclusively in Tesco following criticism from independent pet retailers. "It’s about time we stood up for ourselves and stopped apologising here at Lily’s Kitchen," Henrietta told Pet Trade Xtra.

Here's what Henrietta had to say in full...

Our agreement with Tesco meant that we were not in a position to provide details of the new Lily’s by Lily’s Kitchen range until just before the in-store launch date. It is also important to reiterate that our original Lily’s Kitchen range is not on sale in Tesco.  We have created a separate, new range in order to keep the premium range with existing stockists. 

We also listened to our loyal customers, including retailers who have been with Lily’s Kitchen from the start, and took the decision not to expand into other multiples, such as Pets at Home. Expanding in this way would have been a logical business decision, both financially and also in terms of extending availability of great quality food for pets to a wider customer base. However we listened to their concerns and acted accordingly.

Independent stockists are important to us and we provide huge amounts of support to them, for example free samples, brochures, leaflets, posters as well as helping out with window and in store displays - we provide all this as part of the service we offer. Independent stockists make up 5% of our business (even without the new range) yet we focus most of our efforts on them. In fact, the creation of the separate Lily’s range shows just how much we care about our existing relationships.

Creating this separate range was not the easy option, however, we wanted to approach this opportunity in the right way, being respectful of our independent stockists by keeping the existing core range with them. We very much believe that it is possible to have our independent stockists and multiples working with us side by side all aligned to the same mission of providing the best possible food for pets. 

Our customers are hugely proud of what we have achieved and the difference we have made as indeed I am.  We acknowledge that there are some disgruntled individuals out there who are not happy with our success, but I believe they are in the minority and the majority of people understand and support what we are doing – offering consumers a real choice in the supermarket aisle.

We are proud to be leading this revolution in the aisles - it is a huge mark of respect that we have been asked to create this range and that we have done it without compromising on our ethos. We need to access those consumers who have never stepped inside a pet shop and who do not realise there is an alternative to big name, mass produced pet food. Creating better pet food and more interest in pet food will benefit everyone.

Lily’s Kitchen deserves to be acknowledged for being a successful British business - making a difference to pets’ lives.

• We have revitalised the pet food industry by generating lots of interest in natural pet food.
• We have sparked a national debate to encourage pet owners to look closely into what is in their pet’s food.
• We have worked with journalists to create dozens of articles on natural pet food which has benefitted the entire industry, not just our own company.
• We contribute to charities on almost a weekly basis and have recently been acknowledged by some of them as the ‘most generous’ pet food company in this regard.
• We are a loyal and committed company who has integrity at the heart of everything we do – how we treat our customers, our suppliers and our stockists.

Whilst we have created a separate range of food for a specific retailer, we feel Tesco pets deserve a choice beyond the big name, mass produced brands. We are offering consumers a choice to feed good food to their pets that is produced by a small, independent UK company and not by a global multinational.  

It’s about time we stood up for ourselves and stopped apologising here at Lily’s Kitchen. This is why we are one of the most highly respected companies on Feefo for customer service ratings because of the care and consideration we put into our food and meeting the needs of our customers - both stockists and pet owners.
 
Lily’s Kitchen is a tiny company doing a big thing. I am proud of how we have challenged the status quo, what we have achieved as a team and the difference we make to all the dogs and cats that eat our food. And I am proud to be creating innovative, cutting edge products and to be providing stockists with something wonderful to sell and to talk to their customers about. We are a team of people who go about our work with purpose, honesty and relentless enthusiasm. Our mission has always been, and remains to change the way pets eat. For good.