Essentially B Corps are to business what Fair Trade certification is to coffee. Each must “meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency”, according to B Lab, the organisation that runs the scheme. There are currently more than 1,4000 Certified B Corps from 42 countries and over 130 industries, and the numbers are expanding rapidly.
One of the first in the UK was Lily’s Kitchen, a fast-growing pet food brand. The company started life seven years ago when its founder, Henrietta Morrison, discovered that her homemade meals cleared up the chronic itchy skin complaint suffered by her dog, Lily. “I spent two years working together with a range of vets and nutritionists as well as a herbalist, to create what I felt would be the ultimate food for pets, containing wholesome, natural ingredients that you could recognise, rather than the ‘Frankenstein food’ offered up by the mass market pet food companies,” said Morrison. Originally the food was prepared at her home, but Lily’s Kitchen now employs a team of 45, as well as numerous cat and dog tasters, and retail sales are £20m. Based in Hampstead, London, the company has been awarded the Gold Trusted Merchant accreditation from independent review site Feefo, and consistently achieves 99 per cent to 100 per cent scores across the board for customer service. It’s been the UK’s Number One Ethical Pet Food Company since it launched, and is the only company to achieve a 100 per cent score in the Ethical Good Shopping Guide. The range is currently available nationwide in Waitrose, Tesco and Ocado as well as in Wholefoods, vet surgeries, organic health food shops and pet shops.
From the start
Money to set up the business came from various sources. Morrison started during the recession when banks were not interested in lending to small businesses so she pulled together seed funding by remortgaging her house as well as getting help from family and friends. When Lily’s Kitchen launched it had three lines: chicken and turkey casserole, slow cooked lamb hotpot and beef, potato and vegetables. The Lily’s Kitchen range of recipes has a high meat content of 60 per cent to 65 per cent and the recipes are enhanced with the brand’s signature blend of 14 botanical herbs, each of which, according to Morrison, brings special health benefits. “We now make over 50 different recipes,” added Morrison. “In the beginning I went out with my recipes to local pet shops, vet clinics and health food shops. It seemed very expensive to pay £2.19 for a tin of food, in the midst of a recession. But stockists would phone back a week later asking for more as the feedback was brilliant and they’d sold out. Consumers understand that a food made with real ingredients and high levels of meat is going to be more expensive than the usual ‘chunk and jelly’ varieties.”- Luxury ice cream business capitalises on UK heatwave with product range for dogs
- Running with the pack: Pooch & Mutt boss Guy Blaskey on the value of dogs in the office
- Fitbit for dogs tracking and health product looks to crowd for development funding
However, she went on to say: “Another thing that really motivates me is to shake up an established category that has been dominated by multinationals, with pet food products that are often packed with the cheapest and lowest quality ingredients, including meat meals, fillers and fibrous leftovers and to provide a real product of difference instead. “This has opened doors to work at a whole new level with retailers, challenging the status quo in an industry that is dominated by three major players.”
While that may be the case, Morrison added, “we’re still very much a local company, based in Hampstead, where Lily and her granddaughter Lulu, also a border terrier, enjoy their walks every day on Hampstead Heath.”
Share this story