Sniffers Pet Care
Helping Sniffers to secure a successful investment deal
Sniffers is one of the UK’s fastest-growing, privately-owned pet treat companies. Based on 40 years’ experience in the trade, Sniffers has grown from a small family-owned distribution business to become a leading provider of dog treats with a focus on ethically sourced and manufactured produce.
Sniffers engaged us to support its ambitious growth plans and raise awareness among prospective investors, helping the business’ founders to retire and welcome in a new era of business stewardship.
The Brief.
Sniffers Pet Care is an award-winning business with over 40 years of experience in the pet industry across both retail and distribution. Based in Elland, West Yorkshire, the family-owned organisation produces a range of high-quality pet treat products, including its own range of NAW Natural Dog Treats.
The business required sustained and strategic brand-building to support its ambitious growth plans and raise awareness of the business among prospective investors. This included building the personal profile of director Simon Brown and allowing his parents – the business’ founders – to exit and retire.
The Research.
To get Sniffers in front of investors, we researched the best media titles relevant to the trade in the pet food industry as well as investor relations, creating a 12-month PR activity plan covering press releases, thought leadership and award entries.
The Big Idea.
To build brand awareness and raise the media profile of Sniffers, the team devised a strategy to create compelling and engaging content that was targeted to the key pet industry publications we knew potential investors would be reading. This would include positive news stories about the growth of the business, significant contract wins, supplier partnerships, and new product launches.
To help build Simon’s personal profile, our focus was on securing profiling opportunities in leading industry and regional business media titles.
The Activity
We worked with Sniffers over a 12-month period to deliver consistent high-quality and targeted media coverage, achieving 100% key message delivery across all coverage.
As well as this our team produced consistent, engaging content for media that highlighted key business updates, including quotes from Simon to make his investment strategy and expansion ambitions clear, and generate reverse enquiries from investors. This was supplemented with media relations activity including officially launching Buffalo Dog Treats, reacting to the news agenda and securing opinion pieces.
To build Simon’s profile, we secured personal profiling opportunities in leading media titles, which conveyed what he had done to grow the business to its current size, and his plans for the future. We also drafted several award entries for both Simon as a business leader, and the business itself, which saw Simon included in Yorkshire Business Insider’s 42 Under 42 cohort.
Testament to the success of the campaign is the fact that Simon secured the third-party investment he was looking for. He has now embarked on the next chapter of Sniffers’ growth with a second round of venture capitalist investment.
“The increased brand awareness generated helped us achieve our ultimate goal of finding a suitable partner to invest in Sniffers and accelerate the business’s growth. This in turn allowed my parents to exit the business.
“By raising our profile, we attracted positive and proactive engagement from the market and were able to have detailed conversations with three to four potential investors. This resulted in a deal and continued growth for the business, bringing on board national retailers including Pets at Home.
“The investment secured will allow us to fulfil our ambitious growth plans more aggressively and we are excited as to what the future holds.”
Simon Brown, Director of Sniffers Pet Care
“Sniffers is a perfect example of how consistent, strategic PR and media relations can do more than just raise a company’s profile – it can directly support critical business milestones like securing investment.
By carefully managing Sniffers’ brand narrative and elevating Simon’s profile in front of the right audiences, we helped create the kind of visibility and credibility that attracts serious investor interest.
It’s proof that when media is managed well, it becomes a powerful business development tool, not just noise.”
Stefanie Hopkins – Communications Director
