UK Enterprise 2020

110 | UK Enterprise Awards 2020 Planning a trip away can be a stressful experience from finding a place to stay, transport, necessities to pack and so on. It can be even more challenging when finding the right place for our beloved canine friends to stay during this time. One business taking the stress away and providing and outstanding level of care for dogs is FatdogandFriends. We profiled one of the best dog walking & boarding services in Warwickshire to find out more about the award-winning services they provide. Best DogWalking & Boarding Service 2020 - Warwickshire Jun20366 Established in 2013, FatdogandFriends is a small family owned dog walking and boarding business based in the heart of Warwickshire, covering most areas including Coventry, Nuneaton and Rugby. Since their inception, the business has had a loyal customer base, with many people returning to FatdogandFriends. At FatdogandFriends, the team centre their work around their core values, which are the welfare and care of the animals, whilst giving the client’s trust and peace of mind that their pets are perfectly fine. For many, pets are more than just an animal, they are part of their family. As such, being able to entrust the care of their beloved pet to somebody else is key to building a strong client relationship and solid reputation. Helping to build these solid relationships is the tightknit team, who are all driven to get the work done to the clients’ requirement and in a professional manner. There is an open communication culture which FatdogandFriends founder, Tim Pluckrose created where he takes the time to listen to staff members concerns and ideas. Everyone is encouraged to talk about anything that worries them or something they are concerned about. He communicates his intentions to the staff so they can share ideas and opinions about ways to further improve the business. Tim believes that if you take the time to listen to staff you can find solutions to problems, seek out issues and build a great relationship with everyone overall. Like many industries, dog walking and boarding does have trends which are driven by consumer need, television, technology and lifestyle. One of the biggest changes in recent years has been the introduction of day care centres. What is commonly seen on adverts across the states, has slowly migrated into the UK market. In addition to this, there has been a steady rise in dog walkers offering “Pack Walks”, which has resulted in a consumer need for one to one care if they have had a bad experience. It is no secret that in today’s world, pet dogs are very much part of the family as children are, and so the level of care and consumer expectation has increased dramatically. Many pet dogs now sleep in their owner’s bed, have their own wardrobe of clothes, tailored feeds and even have their own social media account. FatdogandFriends have recognised that there definitely is a consumer need to see what their pets are doing and have been doing whilst in care, as well as the need to be able to show this off to friends and family. The team at FatdogandFriends are sure that the recent events of Covid-19 will lead to new trends and these will no doubt be visible in the next 6-12 months. Not only has the Covid-19 pandemic effected the way many businesses operate, it has also altered future plans and goals. If you asked the FatdogandFriends team a year ago what they hoped to achieve in the next year, it would have been to constantly grow and expand the business. However, the pandemic has meant this plan of action had to be revisited. As the UK begins to take tentative steps to bring a sense of normality, with the opening of businesses, shops and restaurants, it is unclear to know what will happen both nationally and globally over the next three months, meaning it is difficult for FatdogandFriends to even consider planning for the next year or even six months. Currently, the business is in operation but running at around 40% capacity of their walks, with all of their boarding work gone. With the uncertainty of what lies ahead, FatdogandFriends is planning for the immediate future instead. FatdogandFriends plans to reduce the business for a short period of time, instead of push to grow it. With a number of team members naturally leaving in the next few months for a number of reasons, including maternity leave and going to university, the business is not rushing to replace everyone and keep running at full place. Instead, the team see the practically in reducing the business and taking a moment to breathe. During the start of lockdown, the team disposed of the older vehicles and focused on reducing costs, which will put them in a better position in the new year to replenish their vehicle stock with new more economic vans. Additionally, they will also have a smaller crew, which they are currently altering their working practice to adapt to the reduced team size. At this stage, the team will proceed with caution, reduces overheads and hopefully increase profit margins on a smaller turnover until they can see a clearer road ahead. Ultimately, growing financial strength and stability is key to growing FatdogandFriends in the years to come. Contact: Tim Pluckrose Company: FatdogandFriends Web Address: www.fatdogandfriends.co.uk