Expertise in pet food

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Organi Pets is a young Oxford-based company, which started trading in September 2007. It started out from the humble beginnings of trying to give “Raffy”, the owners’ rescue dog, the best diet possible after her diagnosis of cancer 6 years ago. “Today we professionally produce organic dog food, cat food and dog treats,” says sales director and company founder John Rice. Organi Pets supplies around 250 independent pet shops in the UK as well as the supermarket chain Waitrose, which stocks a limited range of “Organi Pets” products. What started off as a husband and wife trying to give their dog the best diet possible by providing “Raffy” with home-prepared organic food, as there didn’t seem to be a good enough commercially available pet food on sale, ended up as the “UK’s Number 1 Pet Food” in The Good Shopping Guide 2007-2008. After bringing in a pet food nutritionist who advises up to European Parliament level and a council member of the Soil Association, a formula was prepared to meet Organi Pets criteria: organic, human-grade food, no artificial colours, preservatives or additives, and hypoallergenic so no wheat, no beef, no soya or other nasty bulking agents. “Basically, our mission is to create the healthiest pet food possible,” John Rice continues.
Safe sources Organi Pets sources all its ingredients as locally as possible to reduce food miles and uses packaging which is recyclable and derives from sustainable forests. Production of both food and packaging takes place locally. Although the seeds came from the development of a healthy organic food for one dog, the organic and premium pet food market is growing rapidly. “We are well placed to fulfil the growing market to feed our dogs and cats a healthy diet,” comments John Rice. The company’s head office is in Oxford in the UK, while production of the “Organi Pets” formula is carried out at GA Pet Food Partners in Lancashire, also in the UK. “We are certainly a lot smaller than most pet food companies out there right now but at one year old we are rapidly growing to claim a solid share of the premium pet food market and many loyal customers,” says John Rice. “Export is a relatively new area of business for us and equates to around 10-15 per cent of our business.” All exports so far have been due to requests from overseas and this is a significant and exciting area of growth for Organi Pets. The company offers territorial exclusivity to allow export partners to…