DTC petcare pioneer Tails.com is making its in-store debut, rolling out a 22-strong range of dogfood to Sainsbury’s.
Available from tomorrow (19 February), the new lineup, Nourish & Protect, is tailored by age, animal size and health needs, with a focus on weight management, gut health and immunity. It comprises wet and dry food – from 2kg bags of kibbles and multipacks of 400g cans to single 150g foil trays (rsps: £1.29 to £12.69).
Every product contains vitamin B and beta-glucans to support a dog’s natural defences, while paraprobiotics help maintain gut microflora and metabolism.
Nourish & Protect took more than a year to develop, after Tails.com had reached “a place in our life as a business where we wanted to take what we can do in terms of advanced nutrition and one-to-one support, and reach the customers who don’t want to buy online” said co-founder James Davidson.
The range “might help our subscription business through greater brand awareness, but it’s for a different customer who wants a different thing and to shop in a different way,” he added. “So, we see this as incremental.”
Nourish & Protect comes with a digital service that offers a portion guide and a free measuring scoop personalised to support effective weight management.
It will appear in 108 Sainsbury’s supermarkets via the grocer’s Future Brands initiative. All 22 SKUs will be ranged together in their own bay.
“Sainsbury’s impressed us,” Davidson told The Grocer. “Our friends at Purina were quite surprised at how much space we got. It’s the only place, I think, where you’ll find wet food and dry food in the same place.”
Launched in 2014, Tails.com sold an 80% stake in 2018 to Nestlé Purina. It now serves more than 14 million personalised meals a month to pets in the UK and Europe. We’re probably one of the biggest subscriptions services in the UK,” said Davidson. “Run rate’s over £100m revenue now.”
Nourish & Protect follows last year’s debut of Republic of Cats, Tails.com’s DTC service that creates bespoke dry and wet food menu plans for cats’ individual nutritional needs based on their health goals and selective tastes.
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