We speak to a pretty unique pet shop retailer...
Independent pet shops pop up in all different locations and circumstances. In On the shop floor this month, we speak to a very unique retailer. Springing up from the seeds of other pet businesses, Helena Bramma developed Poochie Pantry, a thriving pet retail business.
While focusing on online sales, offering click and collect and delivery to a vast number of areas, Helena also has a bricks and mortar store, but this is reserved more for a boutique shopping experience for owners who want advice, as well as a place to fulfil those online orders.
She is also hugely passionate about helping pet owners. Helena is an advocate for raw feeding, and has worked hard to gain qualifications so she can really benefit her customers. Here, she shares her experience…
Q How did you come to decide to open a pet shop?
We opened a dog park in April 2018 and at the same time, we started selling raw dog food. We only sold Paleo Ridge as it was something to have alongside our dog park. I used to run the Barking Mad franchise of York and this was something trying to offer everything for a dog owner really.
When Covid hit, we actually lost the Barking Mad franchise as dog owners weren’t going on holidays and we had a holiday let on site that we had to close down too. Luckily, we got a business grant and we invested everything in Poochie Pantry.
We had one freezer of Paleo Ridge and we got contacted by Benyfit and Dougie’s and they both asked if we would stock it. We went from having three brands to now selling 17 brands of raw dog food, plus when you take into account all the other pet products we sell, we have about 70 different brands in store.
Q Tell us about your store and the people behind it.
There is myself and my partner Anthony behind the business. I do all the customer facing side of the business and Anthony purely does the paperwork and helps with stock management.
From the word go, we offered free local deliveries. We offered click and collect so anyone using the dog park could place their food order and collect it at the same time. With the local deliveries, we did one or two postcodes and there was no minimum order so people could order as little as they want. We would literally just do that in our car. Then, during Covid, more and more people wanted their food delivering, so we expanded. We do about 10 different postcodes now; still free delivery and no minimum order. We now deliver three days a week and we do set routes each of the days.
Just over two years ago, we decided to start shipping UK wide. To start with, we were just sending one or two a week. Slowly, but surely, the word got out and we now ship to the Scottish Highlands and Northern Ireland, which I don’t think many people do.
We don’t advertise ourselves as a bricks and mortar store, even though we do have a physical shop. As there is only two of us in the business, we can’t stand and literally wait for customers. If people want to come down and chat, it is generally because they want advice. So, we do it more as a boutique shopping experience. They get my undivided attention and we can go through what their dog needs. It is very different from a high street shop.
Q How do you go about choosing the right products to sell?
When we select products, they have to fit in with who we are. We do get approached by many companies who I am just not interested in selling their brands. We will only work with manufacturers that have a DEFRA licence.
I am not particularly interested in buying from wholesalers. There are a couple of items I will get from wholesalers but predominantly I like to build a relationship with whom we get our supplies from.
Q You’re an advocate of raw feeding for dogs. How well does raw dog food go down with your customers?
I’ve been a fresh feeder for 10 years. I started with a German Shepherd I had at the time. It was actually Sharon from Paleo Ridge who helped me transition my dog to a raw diet. I advocate for fresh feeding for everybody.
We do sell a couple of brands of kibble — I do understand that we have to be able to offer that. If somebody comes in looking for kibble, I always ask them if they ever add fresh to the bowl. Raw feeding is not for everybody and I understand that. I have people who are kibble feeders but they will add raw meaty bones to the dog’s diet, they will add frozen oily fish, and they’ll add fruit and vegetables.
For me, even getting dogs off the cheap, nasty treats is a positive thing. I try to educate my clients to always read the ingredients.
Q Your website is excellent and allows customers to order online or have a range of options to receive their purchases. How important are online sales to the business?
Our website was an interesting one! Originally, my son, who was then working for an IT company, set it up for our dog park; we didn’t sell the raw dog food on the website. When we decided we were going to sell the dog food online, we went with a company and they were horrendous. The website just didn’t work.
Websites are really stressful if you’re not in that field of business. About three years ago, I found out that one of my dog park customers actually had his own website business and we have been with him ever since — he is brilliant.
We’re now on to our fourth version of the website, which launched over Christmas. We’ve got better search facilities and now have all the different options for click and collect. It will automatically detect by postcode if you’re in our free delivery area or if you are in Northern Ireland or the Scottish Highlands. So that has streamlined the business quite a lot. Our online sales are really important as we encourage people to place their orders before they come down because the shop is very busy with packing and delivering.
The guy I use for the website is brilliant. If we have a glitch, I can message him. Recently, the payments went down, which as you can imagine for an online business is not good. So, we decided to introduce a new payment system which is direct bank transfer. A lot of people pay with their debit card but we still pay fees on that. Now, customers have the option to pay direct into the business account, which cuts out the card fees which is fantastic for a small business.
Q You’ve gained an accredited diploma in canine nutrition and are currently studying zoopharmacognosy — tell us how you’re gaining qualifications to help your customers.
As the dog food business grew and people were coming to me with issues, although I knew about fresh feeding and was reading and listening to all the current research, I still needed to think I had a qualification behind me. I am by no means a qualified canine nutritionist — I don’t charge for any information I give.
I decided to do the iPet Ofqual diploma that took two years. I did feel like I had to have something to back up what I was telling people. I wanted to know the science behind feeding our dogs. I think that makes our service more credible and I have had people come to me because I have the qualification.
I came across applied zoopharmacognosy while I was doing my iPet qualification. It fascinated me that animals have the innate ability to heal themselves in the wild. What the applied zoopharmacognosy does is bring it to domestic pets. So dogs, cats, rabbits, guinea pigs, horses, they can all heal themselves if they are given the access to the correct nutrients. With Caroline Ingraham’s qualification, it was two modules and I am on her masterclass diploma course. We use the IMIM method, which is the Ingraham Method Innate Medication. So we do not diagnose anything and I have no preconceived ideas. I go in and dogs will direct us to which remedies they need. It’s fascinating!
Q What are the key ways you market your products?
A lot of our customers are word of mouth. We are proud of our Google reviews and our Facebook reviews. We do try to excel in customer service. If something does go wrong — we are human — it’s about how you put it right.