Enterprise that is putting a healthy kick into pets’ meals

CHILDHOOD friends Mathew Cockroft and Daniel Eha grew up on a farm in West Yorkshire where they were raised on the fruit and vegetables that their families produced.

Later in life, they wanted to find a way to ensure people’s pets also benefited from a minimally processed and varied diet, made from quality ingredients.

So they launched Pure Pet Food, which has already attracted orders online from as far afield as Scotland and Somerset.

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The products are due to be launched in pet food store Scampers in Soham, Cambridgeshire, in the near future.

Mr Cockroft said: “The idea of a food without the harsh cooking process involved in making commercial pet food seemed great, but could this be made accessible to all owners?

“After much head scratching the solution came in the idea to remove the moisture from the food using a gentle method called dehydration, making the food last, whilst preserving the natural goodness of the ingredients at the same time.”

The duo initially made small batches in Mr Eha’s kitchen with a small dehydration machine they saved up to buy.

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Mr Cockroft said: “The result was that Pure foods not only looked and smelled like real food, but they made it easy for owners to feed their dogs a meal with the same level of nutrients and goodness found in raw and homemade foods, whilst taking away the inconvenience, health risks and costs that this way of feeding can bring.”

Mr Cockroft was previously working as a personal trainer and Mr Eha was studying to be a clinical psychologist when they decided to launch their own business. “We shared the recipes with family and friends and got good feedback to start with but then we started to look at how it could be scaled,” said Mr Cockroft, who expects the firm to turn over £200,000-£300,000 in its first year.

The manufacturing of the products, which are currently aimed at dogs, is outsourced to a business in Yorkshire. Pure Pet Food hopes to launch a cat food range in the future.

Mr Cockroft said: “We’ve grown up on a farm so we’ve always been around animals and I’ve always been into nutrition and so has Dan.

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“It’s something we are really passionate about and believe in.”

Pure Pet Food, which launched a month ago, was recently shortlisted for a Shell LiveWIRE Grand Ideas Award as part of a competition which recognises innovative, young businesses.