Disrupting the pet treat industry and driving rapid growth of a family-owned SME

The Project team at Sniffers

Sniffers Pet Care is an agile SME with over 40 years’ experience in the industry which has grown from a family-owned business into a leading provider of natural pet treats.

In recent years, the company has launched a new consumer-facing brand and secured private equity investment, which has helped to achieve double-digit annual growth.

• James King has been placed within Sniffers Pet Care as the KTP Associate employed to deliver this project. James is a graduate of Leeds Beckett having studied both his undergraduate and master’s degrees in marketing strategy here. James leads on this project from within Sniffers Pet Care supported by the expertise and resources of the university. James has been providing regular insight updates on market, customer and competitor trends that support commercial decision making.
• Simon Brown, CEO of Sniffers Pet Care, took over the family business in 2017 after an 11-year career at Lloyds Banking Group. Under Simon’s leadership, Sniffers has thrived, achieving strong year-on-year growth by providing pet owners with healthier, high-quality alternatives to low quality treats. The company remains focused on expanding its market presence and strengthening its brands through entering more retail environments and continuing to innovate and disrupt the traditional pet sector.
• Jessica Pace, National Account Manager at Sniffers Pet Care, has overseen and guided James in the delivery of this project as company supervisor. With a wealth of knowledge in sales and grocery retail she has provided strategic direction and support alongside the university academic team to ensure the ongoing success of the project.

The KTP was part-funded by the Government through Innovate UK.

The challenge

This KTP project was set up to address some of the key challenges in expanding into the grocery sector. While Sniffers Pet Care had already established itself in the specialist and independent retail space, breaking into the mainstream grocery channels required a strategic approach.

The project aimed to bridge the gap by positioning NAW as a value led, challenger brand to compete against the multi-national mainstream treat brands. This allows NAW to bring high quality natural treats to a wider audience and grow its reach beyond the traditional channels.

Beyond entering the grocery market, the project focused on leveraging the NAW brand to communicate effectively across grocery, specialist and trade customers. This involved effectively communicating the strong brand narrative that had been created by Leeds based brand design agency Robot Food.

The project has also supported Sniffers Pet Care in building a community of engaged early adopters and loyal brand advocates through affiliate marketing and focusing on user-generated content as a social strategy.

The Approach

As part of the project, regular insights gathering has been a key focus, ensuring Sniffers Pet Care stays ahead of market trends and customer needs. By continuously monitoring competitor activity, industry shifts and consumer trends through utilising the university’s resources and access to industry databases, the commercial team has been able to make informed decisions that have driven brand growth and strengthen its position in the pet care market.

To grow NAWs community of brand advocates an affiliate marketing scheme was introduced called The NAW “Slobber Squad”. This has allowed NAW to reach new audiences and incentivises strong brand advocates to create user-generated content. As a result, user-generated content has become the key element of NAWs social media output, creating authentic content that is driven by customers rather than the brand. This ultimately allows NAW to share content that resonates with potential new customers and strengthens brand credibility.

As part of James’s KTP project, he has led on the launch of a new trade website designed to better service Sniffers Pet Care’s trade and independent customers. The importance of Sniffers’ independent customer base was recognised with the aim of this activity to improve product offerings, service levels and user experience. Based on customer feedback from tradeshows and surveys, the new website delivers an easier re-ordering process, clearer product information and an overall improved look and feel.

The new website launch coincided with other improvements including a reduced minimum order quantity, the introduction of free shipping on all orders and quicker dispatch times. Sniffers also introduced more bulk product offerings, helping the independent customers maximise margins while still giving their customers access to high quality natural treats. This activity reinforces Sniffers commitment to supporting and delivering for its trade customers. In the final stages of this project James is also leading on the implementation of an insights led marketing plan for Sniffers’ trade customers along with embedding the skills within the commercial team for this to continue post project.

James supported the commercial team in planning in-store media activations for the Sainsbury’s pet event, expanding NAW’s reach beyond the pet aisle. Activations included a charity partnership with Dogs on the Street which saw NAW donate treats to homeless dogs for every pack sold, Nectar promotions and a QR code on shelf barkers that allowed owners to match their dogs to the right chews. This campaign aimed to educate and convert new customers unfamiliar with offal-based treats.

The Impact

Since the start of this project, NAW has successful launched into Sainsbury’s and Morrisons. NAW has also recently completed a successful three-week pet event in Aldi’s middle aisle and a six-week pet event with The Range. These milestones have enabled NAW to challenge category norms by bringing a fully natural un-processed dog treat into the mainstream retail environment.

By securing placements in major grocery stores, NAW has made high quality, natural pet treats more accessible, allowing customers to conveniently purchase healthy, no-nonsense dog treats as part of their regular food shop. This expansion marks a significant reshaping of the pet treat market, positioning NAW as a disruptive and trusted brand in both specialist and mainstream environments.

NAW’s affiliate marketing scheme also continues to help grow its online community. This has strengthened brand loyalty and created a base of brand advocates passionate about the brand and product which has led to NAW’s Direct-to-customer (D2C) returning customer rate increasing by over 60% in the last year. Ultimately this activity has allowed NAW to build and utilise a community of early adopters that is helping to support NAW’s credibility and reach as it continues to grow.

Having built the business with independent and trade customers, Sniffers Pet Care recognised the importance of maintaining a diverse, competitive and high-quality product offering for its trade customers while also servicing the mainstream retail channels. Throughout this project, Sniffers focused on improving its service to trade customers by reducing minimum order quantities, removing delivery fees and speeding up dispatch times to support smaller retailers. These improvements were also introduced with the launch of a new trade website, designed to give customers greater control over their accounts and simplify their re-ordering process.

This has led to a 31% increase in the number of orders since the website change vs the previous period, brought back lapsed customers and reduced the barrier to entry for smaller independent customers who previously felt unable to order from Sniffers Pet Care.