Hello, you lovely Pet Parent, you!
It’s the 1st of October today, and it’s definitely autumn now. Like the haulier issue, it held off, held off, held off and arrived all at once.
This is a bit of an update on what’s happening now with Bounce and Bella and a couple of quick mentions about what we’re considering over the next few months – Prime Day and Christmas take up quite a bit of time – so realistically, probably over the next five to six months.
Autumn Update to Another Crazy Year!
What’s Happening Now?
- Wood Green…
We’ve got an Instagram live today with the Wood Green Animal charity. It’s black dog day, and for some reason, black dogs are often the last to be rescued from centers – we’ll be discussing that as well as adopting and how to foster rescues to get them ready for their forever home.
- Darren’s Dog Race…
While we’re talking Instagram, our resident Instagram superstars on our social media team have been running ‘Darren’s Dog Race’ – an incredibly adorable competition to find the Queens and Kings of the UK Doggie scene.
To see who’s made it to the weekend finale, visit: https://www.instagram.com/stories/highlights/17935829881631169/ - New Fish and Poultry Training Treats Packaging…
You’ll start noticing a different look for the fish and poultry training treats. We’ve made a design error and not mentioned it on the packaging, but they are fully recyclable at the kerbside. - Stock Issues…
This problem couldn’t have come at a worse time of year, or maybe that’s why it’s happened.
It’s happening for a few reasons, but mostly because (a) supply is tight and demand is high – not helped by the gas problem.
(b) the haulier issue means actually finding someone to deliver stock to us when we get it is ridiculously difficult.
Small businesses like us always struggle at times like this because suppliers and hauliers naturally want to keep their supermarket size buyers happy first.
Andy has worked wonders in the past, and you’ve been incredibly patient with us throughout the pandemic and before.
We really, really appreciate all the patience you’re giving us during this latest crisis.
If you can’t find what you’re looking for, just reply to an email or contact us, and Hannah will pop your name down to let you know as soon as your dog’s fav is back in stock again.
What’s Happening Next?
- UK Sourced Dry Dog Food…
Releasing raw food was massive for us – we ticked the absolute best you can offer your dog box – But…
But but but… It’s a big change, and we know from your messages that it’s too tricky for many of you, particularly in terms of logistics and time.
That’s why we’ve been looking into a new super-premium dry dog food.
Something to sit between raw food and our current premium dry dog food.
We’re not replacing the current dry premium food – we don’t want to mess with something your dog is already loving – but we are listening to your requests for better provenance. For higher farming standards – free-range chicken for example. For more of that higher-quality meat. And to include UK only sourced ingredients.
This may take a while to set up, but if it’s something you’re interested in knowing more about, you can reply back to this email saying ‘Super Premium Dry’, and we can start to get a feel for whether we should be pursuing it or not. - New Branding…
This is another slowly, slow process, but we’re having chats with designers about helping us come up with a more cohesive look across all our channels and products.
Andy and I are back and forth about whether we should ask them to get a few looks together and then ask you to help us decide on the final choice.
That lack of control feels a bit scary, but because we’re on this journey together – it feels right to start making some of these decisions together with you too.
If that’s something you’d like to happen, reply with ‘I like choosing!’ so we know if it’s worth chatting to you further about.
That’s it, and that’s plenty for now.
Anything you’re interested in seeing or needing, just reply to this email so we know.
It’s the gorgeous Gill’s birthday over the weekend, so we’ll be celebrating in the time-honoured fashion of a nice meal out followed by a few gins for me, a few Prosecco’s for Gill and a dance around the kitchen.
I hope you have yourself an absolutely lovely weekend too,
Darren