By Jessica Rowe
A New Zealand dog food company is in line to be one of the top ten fastest growing businesses when Deloitte's Fast Fifty companies are named later this month.
K-9 Natural Food has grown more than 700 percent over the past year and the global demand for the product is growing every day.
Alaskan grey wolves were the inspiration and genius behind K9 Natural Food.
The founder spent weeks in the wild, studying the wolves’ feeding habits before turning his findings into commercial dog food.
Company chief executive Calvin Smith says the product's phenomenal success is simply down to what dogs naturally like to eat.
“Most dogs typically don’t get a choice, they get given what the human gives them. But if you put a raw natural diet down against a cooked diet, the dog will always choose the raw diet,” he says.
It's described as raw cow and sheep in a bag and dogs just can't get enough of it.
K9 Natural Food has grown by 720 percent this year, and after doubling its exports over the last two years, the company is struggling to keep up with demand.
“This month we will be exporting the same amount of value that we sold for all of this year.”
The man behind the marketing says the New Zealand natural brand is spreading worldwide.
“[We’re getting] results overseas where we have entered global markets, the branding is obviously right on the mark and reflects New Zealand’s own natural state and recognition in the world,” says Nick Hawes.
K9’s Mr Calvin says the quality of the ingredients is a big selling point.
“So one of our strong selling points it is human grade quality, we source all our products from the human food chain so you can eat it if you want,” he says.
And while dogs around the globe wait for their tucker, K9 Natural Food is waiting to hear their company named as one of Deloitte's top ten fastest growing businesses.
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