RUFF DIET SPURS A PET FOOD EMPIRE
ANNA Podolsky gave up a lucrative career with Bain & Co after realising there had to be an alternative to the supermarket pet food that was making her border collie Lyka ill.
Three years later and the 29-yearold is at the helm of a multimilliondollar pet food company named after Lyka that has home delivered more than 1.5m freshly cooked meals to pooches around the country. The
company uses human-grade meat and vegetables as opposed to highly processed traditional pet food which she claims has increased cancer rates and other diseases among pets.
Lyka Pet Food recently attracted $6.5m in a capital raising including from Wattle Hill Capital, Shearwater Capital and Petbarn founder Paul Wilson as it continues to expand into the lucrative $2.8bn pet food market in Australia. Lyka plans to use the funds to expand its distribution
network and increase capacity at its Sydney facility where the meals are made in consultation with co-founder and veterinarian Dr Matthew Muir. The company employs about 50 people, with numbers set to increase.
Ms Podolsky said about 80 per cent of pets in Australia continue to be fed processed food that can legally contain diseased animals and blood.
“Traditional pet food is cooked at very high temperatures, which not only destroys the nutrients but
creates carcinogens,” she said. IBISWorld analyst Blair Li said consumers were increasingly seeking out high-quality products for their pets, with manufacturers responding by releasing “gourmet varieties”.
Ms Podolsky said the latest wave of Covid-19 lockdowns had increased demand for its range of turkey, beef, chicken and lamb meals that were delivered frozen and cost on average $4.50 a day. “That is the cost of a cup of coffee,” she said.