Brand No.1 (and their furry friends) have officially landed at Charlie Oscar HQ.
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Different Dog is a pet food brand that’s reimagining pet nutrition. Armed with a team of chefs, vets, and nutritionists, they hand-cook human-grade food for dogs of all sizes using locally-sourced British ingredients, and deliver them direct-to-consumer (in compostable tubs).
Spurred on by a mission to change dogs' lives, husband-and-wife duo Charlie and Alex Thurstan have built a brilliant, customer-centric operation, and it’s an honour to invest in them, and join them on their journey to scale.
We’ve spent the past few months working closely with the Different Dog team, and integrating our proprietary data science platform to accelerate their next chapter. It’s been eye-opening to discover the transformational impact that the right nutrition can have on the health of our furry friends - despite the majority of the UK's 12 million dogs being fed heavily processed food that is shaving years off their lives.
Different Dog is a one-of-a-kind brand and business, bolstered by a fanatical community, brilliant retention rates, and a commercial team of genuine dog lovers. Here’s the art, science and culture of why we think Different Dog will be the UK’s next breakout brand.
The Art: Evangelical customers served by an evangelical team
In a previous life, Charlie used to work in the pet food industry, and the ‘aha’ moment came when he got to look around factories where processed pet food was made. What he saw convinced him, Alex, and their little dog Crumble, to do everything differently.
From that point on, they set their mission - to change dogs' lives with real food - and began to revolutionise the way dog food is made.
- They’re the only brand to “gently cook” dog food in a pan, just like you would with human food, meaning bacteria is killed, while nutrition and flavour is preserved.
- They offer radical transparency at their human-grade commercial kitchen (not factory) in Shropshire - and are the only UK dog food company to regularly perform cooking demonstrations around the country.
- Their in-house vet and nutritionist ensure all recipe’s are optimal for a dog’s health and wellbeing, and provide unparalleled customer service and nutrition advice.
- With 4.8/5 on trustpilot, notably high retention rates, and a nutrition score of 97% on allaboutdogfood.co.uk they’ve got a fanatical community who constantly evangelise about the foods transformational benefits.
- They have a strong commitment to sustainability, using compostable and recyclable packaging. The team also seeks to reduce waste by sourcing human grade produce that isn't pretty enough for supermarket shelves.
