Packaging helps drive sales for pet food brand

Flexible packaging, supplied by the UK’s Tyler Packaging, has helped a new pet food brand achieve sales of more than £3 million in the first few months of business.

British brand Fisherman’s Daughter was launched in May at Zoomark 2013 in Italy, an international exhibition of products and accessories for pets. Since then, the company has taken orders worth more than £3 million, the majority of which is for export.

Fisherman’s Daughter is the brainchild of husband and wife team Robert and Jill Angell. He has a background in buying and selling seafood worldwide, whilst she has a background in marketing.

Together they launched Fish4Dogs in the mid-2000s, which quickly grew from a home-based business into a large-scale operation. In 2010, the Angells sold this business to pursue alternative pet foods to develop.

This resulted in Fisherman’s Daughter, another dog food and treat brand. Both use fish as their central ingredient, and the development and design concept of Fisherman’s Daughter took roughly 6-12 months to finalize with the help of The Lighthouse Agency. This included blue coloring and seaside items as part of the design, such as a lighthouse and boat.

For the packaging, a manufacturer recommended Tyler Packaging to Richard and Jill Angell. She said: ‘We met with Tyler Packaging in January of this year and found that it had some really innovative ideas that we thought were great. Whilst the company wasn’t involved in the design concept, it played a strong role in the technical and production side of our brand and packaging.’

This included recommending the use of a registered matte/gloss finish on the packaging, and the selection of a black color for the gloss on the back – neither of which had been done in the pet food industry before. Tyler also provided one-way valves to help protect and preserve the perishable goods within the packaging.

She added: ‘For us it’s all about staying ahead of the competition, which Tyler understands, and gets completely.

‘It completely understood why we were using certain colors, as well as understanding where we wanted to take the brand and what we planned to do with it, particularly when it came to humanizing the packaging of the pet food, instead of simply trying to target the dogs.’

Humanizing the packaging included using Jill Angell’s image on the packaging, rather than a dog, as 80 percent of those who purchase pet food are females and more likely to buy pet products with a person on the packaging.

From the first meeting with Tyler to the product and its packaging being ready to introduce at Zoomark 2013 took just months, although the short lead time did cause some issues.

‘We didn’t order the packaging until quite late and it wasn’t due to be ready until the day before the exhibition, whereby Matt [Baldock] from Tyler flew it out to us personally and then stayed on the exhibition stand to help us fill the packaging as we didn’t have the machinery to seal the bags,’ said Jill Angell.

‘As this is normally done within the factory we had to improvise and use hair straighteners.

‘The stand [at Zoomark] looked fantastic; it had a beach, a rickety old boat, fishing nets and the walls of the stand were pale blue, and was designed to look just like the packaging. We had so many compliments, with many telling us our stand was miles better than the rest.’

She added: ‘We owe so much credit to Tyler; it has been fantastic at understanding our ideas and where we want to take the brand, as well as providing numerous innovative ideas.

‘Whilst many of the sales we’ve generated are due to the quality of our product, the packaging has been critical to the success, especially the handles and the one-way valves. With the majority of our current sales being exports, the one-way valve removes any air, preventing the packaging from breaking as they’re stacked on top of each other on pallets to be transported, whilst preventing any air from entering the packaging, therefore helping to preserve the product.

‘Whilst our packaging looks good, it also works a treat – both are as important as the other. And I simply wouldn’t have known any of this if Tyler hadn’t brought it up.

‘Although our packaging is more expensive than most; because of the high-end production and print, it has already proved its worth and more. The money we save in that no product is damaged during transportation is brilliant, but to receive £3 million worth of orders with just one show appearance just highlights the power of great packaging. Quality will always win.’

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