LOW CARBON PET FOOD BRAND HAS GLOBAL GROWTH AMBITIONS

Percuro Primal Pet Foods based in Henley-in-Arden has secured funding through the Innovate EDGE UK proof-ofconcept programme delivered by Coventry University.

The programme supports SMEs in earlystage product development through access to funding, one-to-one innovation support and workshops.

The funding was crucial to Percuro being able to carry out a full feasibility study that helped to establish market demand for the product through extensive consumer research among pet owners in the UK and Germany.

As a result, it is now selling direct to consumers in Europe via its own website and has secured supply contracts with big name UK brands such as Pets at Home, Waitrose, Ocado and Amazon, as well as others overseas in Italy, Singapore and South Korea.

The company was founded by Denise Saber, who worked in investment management, and Chief Executive Brett Vye, who has a background in the pet and brewing industries.

Denise said: “We were confident we had something special, but we needed to test it. We ranked each of the ingredients against peer groups, comparing the effect on pets’ health and wellness (low inflammation) and the effect of sourcing each ingredient would have on the planet. We conducted an independent five-day palatability and digestibility two bowl test with 20 dogs and benchmarked against our UK leading competitor.

“We believe that this is innovation at its best because of the positive impact it can have on animal health and life expectancy, and climate change. Through having sustainable insect protein and plant-based ingredients that are traceable and 100 per cent livestock-free, this is a business that can scale up and become a leading brand globally.”

Percuro is the Latin word for ‘heal completely’ and key to the company’s sustainability credentials is the use of black soldier fly larvae as its protein source for its products.

Dogs and cats alone consume 20 per cent of the world’s animal-based sources of protein such as meat and fish, but the edible insect protein in Percuro’s pet food uses only a fraction of the land, water and energy.

Martin Lucy, Operations and Development Manager at Innovate UK EDGE at Coventry University, said: “Percuro is developing a novel environmentally-aware product and accessing the proof of concept ERDF funded grant enabled them to undertake the research aspect of the project to better understand the size of the commercial opportunity and the best way forward, reducing the financial risk of their project.”