Winners

Podium Pet Products was founded by Nick Evans, Andrew Hine and Carina Evans in 2008 – all GB sportspeople with a strong connection to rural life, the countryside and animals. Their joint passion to create a world-leading pet product distribution and manufacturing business started with a ‘hero’ product from Australia called Dog Rocks, and has grown significantly over the course of the past decade to include the award-winning range of Be:Loved products for pets and their parents. The company was thrilled to have won a Queen’s Award in 2016 and are bowled over by their King’s Award for Enterprise In International Trade in 2023.

Having weathered many a storm, including recession, FX challenges, Covid, the rapid emergence of the online market place, competition and not least being almost permanently under resourced, the directors recognise this award as a particular pat on the back for their existing team.

“Running one’s own business is never easy and every day there are multiple curve balls every day, but we are absolutely over the moon to have received such an accolade,” says Carina Evans, Founder and CEO. “We have always prided our self on our ability to expand our relationships with customers and partners whilst providing an excellent level of service. We just now need to find time to sit down and properly reflect and celebrate with the team.”

The beginnings
Podium Pet Product’s journey started with one distributor and one big box retailer in the UK market. “It was down to buyers looking for innovation and trusting us to deliver that got us on our way. The same buyers are still in the industry and the same companies are still some of our largest customers,” says Carina.

Once their UK business model was established and lessons learned from the UK market, Podium Pet Products dabbled in the EU market, but found language barrier an initial problem so instead concentrated their efforts in North America where they have been trading since 2012 and have established a strong network of distributors, big box retailers and mom and pop stores, as well as an online presence.

FX challenges in a global market.
The only challenge in the North American market to date has been FX. “We deal in the Can$, the US$, the Euro, the £ and the Aus$ so its been give with one hand and take with the other, resulting in neither a significant net loss or gain,” says Carina. “Some years have been better than others but overall its levelled. We have never had to hedge or borrow or seek investment, it’s a neat ship.”

The next phase of growth will be to get the right ‘bums on seats’ so that there are no super profits, in order to partner with another like-minded company with a slightly more diverse product range and probably more of an online presence, and ultimately to sell.