OrganiPets in Norway, Best Pets and Woof Factor!

Just a reminder that the Best Pets Competition closes on 31 July, so if you want your cat or dog to have the chance of being the inspiration for the next character in the Ann Edwards family range getting entering now, full details are on the website under competitions.

We have spent alot of time this week with our distributor from Norway, he had never been to Oxford so enjoyed seeing this beautiful city as well as talking about OrganiPets. We are very popular in Norway and we are about to get even bigger, Ill let you know more about this over the next few months.

The Woof Factor is proving to be a big hit, we have been inundated with entries, but keep on sending them in as we love to see all your fantastic dogs.

We hope you are enjoying the sun, Raffy enjoys her evening walks along the Thames although Im not sure the ducks do!

Finally we are really pleased to have won the prestigous Greenshoots award, this is what they said about us.....

'Oxfordshire based OrganiPets has scooped the top prize in MEPC Milton Park’s 2008 Greenshoots Award. The award was set up by MEPC Milton Park, one of the largest business communities in the UK, to recognise and nurture environmentally focused start-up companies.

The judging panel found OrganiPets to be the most innovative nominee, producing environmentally friendly pet food and embracing sustainable practices throughout the business. The company will receive one year’s free office accommodation at MEPC Milton Park and mentoring from the prestigious Warwick Business School, an award worth an estimated £15,000.

OrganiPets was set up in 2007, when founders John Rice and Liz Nuttall were unable to find high quality organic food for their terminally ill dog, Raffy. When their home-produced organic pet food was linked to the improvement of Raffy’s health, they decided to make the food commercially available.

Alongside the owners’ passion for natural pet food, OrganiPets is committed to growing the business, avoiding excess packaging, recycling wherever possible and supporting local farmers.

The Greenshoots Award was open to any business under three years old with a strong environmental connection. The standard of entries was exceptional, proving Oxfordshire as a hot bed for environmentally-minded entrepreneurs.

Entries were analysed by panel of judges including Professor Roger Mumby-Croft of Warwick Business School and Andrew Smith, business editor of the Oxford Times.

Roger Mumby-Croft of Warwick Business School commented: “The business mentoring part of the prize is set to be particularly beneficial to OrganiPets as it moves into its next stage of growth - collaborating with local growers to produce the ingredients required, rather than sourcing overseas and increasing food miles. This environmental consideration across all aspects of the business is helping to develop growth and efficiency.”

Managing director of MEPC Milton Park James Dipple commented: “Its ethical sourcing and commitment to organic produce has enriched the business, making OrganiPets an outstanding company, and one which we are proud to award the winners of Greenshoots 2008. We look forward to working with OrganiPets and seeing it become a major pet food brand with the help of the Greenshoots Award.”

Woof Factor!

Does your dog has what it takes to win the Woof Factor?
OrganiPets launched the Woof Factor at The Cold Wet Nose Show at the weekend.Sponsored by OrganiPets, Dogs Today magazine and The Milestone hotel. The winning dog will go on the OrganiPets Christmas treat pack, will star in a photoshoot, will appear in Dogs Today and will win a weekend of pampering for both them and their owner at the exclusive dog freindly hotel The Milestone in Kensington London. Wow what a prize. All you need to do to enter is log on to www.organipets.co.uk, fill in the entry form and send us a photo of your dog, its that simple! Why wait enter day!

Cold Wet Nose

We met with Beverley yesterday, she is the editor of Dogs Today which is the biggest monthly Dog magazine in the UK. The meeting was very enjoyable as Beverely brought her son and we brought Raffy, we all chatted hapily while tucking into the most amazing chinese food!

The upshot of the meeting is that OrganiPets is going to launch a very exciting competition at the Cold Wet Nose Show which is on the 12 July, we will tell you more in the weeks to come, but its going to be huge and all you dogs out there who make your 2 legged friends life a little bit better keep reading as this will be for you!

Thanks all the kind offers of support for the West Oxford Animal Rescue, its really good to know there are so many kind people out there, however although you offered lots of support we still need for a kindly printer to come forward to help Julie. If you know of anyone who might be happy to help please let us know.

This coming weekend will be s short one for us as we are going on holiday, however dont worry most of the team will still be here so your orders will still be processed, but the blog will take a little holiday, back on the 30 June.
Have a great weekend

Can you help our Charity???

One of the charities we support is West Oxford Animal Rescue, we give them all the food they need for all the cats and dogs they look after. This has meant that they have been able to focus their funds on some of their more 'special' animals who are in need of veterinary attention. Gabby and Ticky for example are kittens, they arrived at the rescue after falling from a balcony and were in a terrible state. Gabby seemed to have ruptured one eye and Ticky wasnt responding to anything so was thought he had suffered brain damage. After surgery Gabby regained sight in both eyes and tests showed that Ticky was at least 80% deaf which was why he wasnt responding. With the fantastic help of all the volunteers he is learning to cope with his disability and is learning to trust humans again. However the Rescues vets bills are never ending and the more money they can raise the more veterinary care thye can afford. We have been speaking to Julie who runs the rescue about otherways to rasie money and Julie would like to design and sell Christmas cards and calendars from November. We have tried to find printers and designers who can help Julie but we are struggling, is there anyone out there who can help this rescue, it would make such a difference??? If you could help in anyway could you contact Julie at julie.woar@hotmail.com or call 01865 873324. Many thanks


Raffy was very pleased with herself as she appeared in a 3 page article in the Independents Saturday magazine last week, she is still going through all your emails asking about whats it like being the CEO of an organic petfood company surrounded by food! However right now shes taking a nap under my desk obviously building up her strenght for her walk at lunchtime!

Have a lovely weekend, fingers crossed we get some decent walking weather as getting wet all the time isnt so much fun, British summers eh!

New venture with Paw Pals

We are very excited here as we have just started a new venture with Paw Pals, www.paw-pals.co.uk. Paw Pals are an ethical pet sitter and dog walking company based in Swindon but they have franchises through out the UK and they are expanding fast into other countries.

Victoria heads up Paw Pals she gave up her high level job in PR to set up Paw Pals and its gone from strenght to strenght. The difference between Paw Pals and other pet sitting companies is the extra level of care they take and the ethical approach they have to their business. It became clear very quickly that OrganiPets and Paw Pals made natural partners and the rest is history.

So let us know if you see the Paw Pals cars driving in your area as they will have the OrganiPets logos on then now!

Raffy is off to another photo shoot this Sunday as we are about to announce a further joint venture with other like minded companies, we will be able to tell you more about this in July! Raffy loves having her photo taken, however this one might be a bit tricky as there will be lots of cats there and although Raffy loves cats we not sure how she will react to lots of them, we will let you know how it goes!

Have a great weekend, looks like the weather isnt going to be as nice as in the week but its the British summer so we are used to this! Bye for now

Summers arrived?

This has been a busy week for Raffy. She appeared on Radio Solent yesterday for a prime time 30 min slot all about pet food. John spoke on Raffys behalf but all the production team were smitten with her and wanted to take her home with them! There were alot of callers ringing in saying that even in these difficult economic times they still wanted to give their pets good honest food like OrganiPets. One caller rang to say that perhaps organic pet food was a step too far, however John explained that what was important in pet food was that it was made from good quality ingredients that benefit pets ( not low grade meat or bulking agents such as wheat and soya) and that there should be no artifical preservatives, flavours or colours added. As we use organic ingredients these by definition will not have such nasties in them, additionally us as pet owners have the peace of mind knowing that the chickens we use are freerange and well as organic. So what we are saying is that whats important is that pet food is made from real ingredients that help our pets and is produced in an ethical way, being organic is the icing on the cake. There also was one caller taking about high protein being wrong for pets, the vet who was also on the show pointed out that dogs and cats are meant the have protein however whats important is the type of protein and that protein that mainly comes from a carbohydrate base probably isnt the best.

Let us know your thoughts on this as these are interesting questions.

Raffy is now about to be interviewed by a journalist for a very big paper so we need to dash.

Have a lovely weekend, perhaps Summer has arrived?

All About Dogs

This week we have been busy getting ready for All About Dogs which is on 10 -1 1 May, its at The Brentwood Centre Showground Brentwood Essex, we would love to see you so please pop down, it should be lots of fun.

This weeks update is going to be short and sweet as the suns just come out and it is a Bank Holiday so Raffy is going to take us all out for a long walk.

One last thing dont forget to keep entering our Best Pets competition, you still have until 31 July to enter, the winning dog and cat will be made into characters in the Ann Edwards Family Pet range and the lucky owners will keep all the original artwork!