Bespoke meals for your pooch: Start-up dishes up dogs’ dinners with a difference

Joanna Bourke

HERE have been incidents of humping and weeing,” admits James Davidson. Thankfully the Tails.com boss is referring to his Richmond office’s canine contingent, and is fairly sanguine about their misdemeanours. “At the end of the day, dogs are welcome and are the reason we are making money, so we can’t complain at the odd bit of havoc they may cause,” says Davidson.

Fortunately, when I meet him, there is no canine mayhem to distract us. The 39-year-old dog-food entrepreneur turns up for a coffee in Kensington High Street casually dressed in a black shirt with sleeves rolled up. He excitedly sets out his ambitious growth targets for his burgeoning business. Tapping into Britain’s status as a nation of dog lovers, he has grown Tails using savvy marketing and unique products, and last year notched up sales of £2 million.

He aims to turbocharge revenues fivefold this year to £10 million, and double that the year after. They’re the kind of figures blithely pulled out of the air by millionaire wannabes on Dragons’ Den but, Davidson explains, the sums are based on strong sales and a huge opportunity. The UK dog-food market is worth £1.7 billion, according to researcher Euromonitor International.

Tails sets itself apart by creating bespoke meals for pooches from its huge warehouse in Heathrow, blending ingredients to order and working out the best mix for individual dogs based on their breed, age, size and medical condition. The products are then delivered direct to its 40,000 customers’ homes.

“We are trying to help people’s dogs live longer. We mix three types of kibble [dry feed] for our customers to personalise the best vitamins and nutrients for an individual pet. We have enough kibbles to make over one million different combinations,” says Davidson.

The portions make sure an animal is “perfectly full”, but will also help to tackle the problem of over- indulging, he explains. “We ensure they have the right amount at a time when some dog owners indulge the pooches a little too much, causing them to be obese.” Potential customers get a free twoweek trial, and then prices range from £10 to £60 a month. Every breed and age is catered for — fans include Lizzie, a seven-year-old Labrador, and Tigger, a 17-yearold Jack Russell terrier.

Davidson was brought in on the ground Draper Esprit. Its second round of fundraising, late last year, raised “several million pounds”.

Kent-born Davidson — a father of two, soon to be three — has a strong corporate pedigree. He studied chemical engineering at Nottingham University before becoming a graduate trainee at consumer goods giant Unilever. He got to visit France, China and Mexico in that role, and that triggered a love of travelling. He and wife Jenny went on to volunteer as staff on an expedition with the Raleigh International charity in Central America for four months.

They returned to England in 2006 and moved to Wimbledon, and Davidson became head of supplychain operations at Innocent Drinks, spending seven years there.

“The skills I learned at Innocent included keeping quality as the most important factor and building a team — mine grew from four to 30 people,” he says. He is convinced this experience helps make him the right man to grow Tails. NTERNATIONAL expansion is planned, with shipping to Germany and France before the end of next year. The company could also look to cater for other creatures: “We are considering cat food and future product innovation, possibly as early as 2017.”

Davidson doesn’t reckon Brexit will get in the way of growth, and cites John F Kennedy’s quotation about the Chinese word for “crisis” being composed of two characters, representing danger and opportunity. “Entrepreneurial businesses like us should be able to spot unforeseen opportunities that this turbulence will bring and have the agility to act on it faster than competitors,” he says.

This modern-day Dr Doolittle might just have the tools to become top dog in the world of pampered pooches.