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INTERVIEW THE BIG
By Ged Henderson
IN ASSOCIATION WITH:
VIEW ON DEMAND
PET PROJECT
Roger Bracewell isn’t keen on following the crowd, instead he is firmly striding out in the opposite direction.
While business competitors are increasingly focusing on the world of e-commerce you won’t find any of his family firm’s products for sale on the likes of Amazon.
Roger is chairman of GA Pet Food Partners, winner of this year’s Red Rose Awards large business category, and a true Lancashire success story.
The firm has just opened its new £85m ‘world-leading’ Ingredient Kitchen, designed to produce high quality pet food at its Bretherton plant.
That food is being created to supply the independent pet trade with its own brand products. It’s a massive global market, made even larger by the decision of growing numbers of brand manufacturers to take their operations online.
From humble beginnings in the 1990s, GA Pet Food Partners today employs 850 people and has a £145m turnover. More than 40 per cent of those sales are made overseas, with the business exporting to 37 countries.
The operation makes and sells 80,000 tonnes of dried pet food a year through an operation running 24/7. As well as its Plocks Farm manufacturing site, set in the Lancashire countryside, it has an expansive distribution and fulfilment centre at Buckshaw Village.
Roger, 62, says: “Our whole business is about doing something different, not following anyone else. Brands are increasingly looking towards the internet; we’re moving in the opposite direction and turning our back on the internet.
“That shift in the market has given us a large opportunity, 80 per cent of sales are still through independent pet shops. That is the sector we are committed to supporting and serving. We see them as our partners, it’s in our name, and we treat them as such.”
Those independent shops need pet food to get customers through the door and the Lancashire business delivers, providing products they can put their brand on. It will fulfil orders as small as one bag of food.
Europe remains a major market. With subsidiary companies based across the continent, GA Pet Food Partners saw its European sales grew by 60 per cent last year and is hoping they will reach £40m next year. Japan is another lucrative and growing outlet.
Roger talks about how the business is committed to delivering quality at an affordable price and how selling direct improves its customers margins – all key weapons in its armoury.
It’s the farmers’
mentality that there is nothing you can’t do if you put your mind to it
Roger says there have been other shifts in the sector that the business has seized on to its advantage. He points out that today there are 3.2 million more pets in the UK than at the start of the pandemic.
And he explains that the ‘humanisation’ of those pets has led to them becoming part of the family, with households now spending on their animals at the same levels they spend on their children. This emergence of ‘pet parents’ also means they are focused on buying premium products for their loved ones.
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