It’s the one-stop dog shop for everything edible - get ready to Drool!
Drool is the Derby-based, family-run business that’s serious about dog nutrition. We caught up with founder, Shaun Richards, to find out why making ‘healthy’ more accessible is his top priority.
Tell us more about Drool’s mission
We set out to create a genuinely honest brand that’s not about gimmicks and jargon – just straight-up, best quality, nutritious food, treats and supplements for dogs, priced competitively as they can be. We’ve always been very clear on what’s best for our own pets and we’re now on a mission to keep as many dogs as happy, healthy and satisfied as ours are. This means making raw, natural, and nutritious food as accessible as possible without any compromise on quality.
What makes Drool different?
We do all the sourcing and tracing ourselves, so we’re able to keep production costs low. It starts with us sourcing high quality meat for our raw range, then monitoring it all the way from our ethical abattoir to the shelf, fully vet checked. We put in all the hard miles so that no other brand can beat us consistently on price. Basically, Drool customers will never feel like they could be getting a better deal somewhere else. Our dogs are a bit greedy, but we’re not!
What inspired you to start the company?
I helped grow a successful pet food manufacturing company about five years ago and gained a lot of knowledge around buying raw materials, manufacturing, and also managing the sales and customer service. I left on good terms, so that I could focus on my own venture. I had always wanted to create my own pet business, so all the momentum provided me with the ideal opportunity. I approached my business partner, Paul, who had been my mentor for about 8 years, and we came up with the Drool brand. We started out in the back room of a pet shop, then graduated to a small unit for six months until we were ready for our first warehouse. Twelve months later, we’d expanded into our second warehouse.
Do you think attitudes to dog food and treats are changing?
Massively! With social media growing year on year and more and more “dog profiles” popping up across all of them, dog owners are constantly being served up information about pet nutrition. As a result, they’re increasingly aware of the ingredients used in food and treats and they get to ask questions. It’s much harder for brands to hide behind ambiguous descriptions and ingredients lists and that’s a good thing. For us, healthy dog food has always centred around raw. There are just so many benefits of raw feeding and we’ve seen it literally transform people’s pets, especially sensitive dogs with allergies. Digestion, teeth, skin & coats can all be improved with a raw, natural diet and we want to make raw and natural more accessible by working hard to keep costs and overheads as low as we can.
What’s your best-selling product right now?
Our raw food is very popular, as is our range of pates. As far as treats go, the Drool 100% meat training treats are definitely a best seller. But to be honest, everything in our treat range does well. Once people discover us, they tend to want to try everything, which is great! At the moment, we’re super-excited about the launch of our new Supplement Treat Range, which has just landed in shops and online. Vet-approved, the range supports all the most common issues your dog might be affected by and, like everything else on our menu, each product is free from artificial preservatives, colours, and flavours. They also taste great, according to all our product tasters!
Who are your chief product testers?
My two Labradors Jack & Floss have been very happy to oblige with product tasting, as have, Paul’s dogs, Murr, Eva, & Dexter. We don’t have any problem recruiting other four-legged volunteers, as you can imagine.
Where is the Drool brand headed?
We just want to keep on making the tastiest, most natural products on the market. There’s a new Drool chub mince range launching next month, which we’re really proud of. Price point wise, it offers fantastic value for money, so we hope customers will be as excited as we are. We’ll also be extending our natural treat range.
