Butcher’s Pet Care sale is “a big move”

“We’ve been talking over the deal for about 10 years, to be honest,” says Graham Baker, founder of Butcher’s Pet Care.

At the end of August, it was announced that one of Britain’s largest petfood producers, Butcher’s Pet Care, has been sold to manufacturer Inspired Pet Nutrition. The deal, which is expected to complete in October, will reportedly help the business achieve a £350 million turnover.

IPN’s existing brands include Waggs, Barking Heads and Harringtons, and according to Graham, the addition of the Butcher’s brand makes “a lot of sense” for the manufacturer.

“The IPN business is made up almost entirely of dry food products. I’ve known their chairman Richard Page for years and we’ve talked about merging the businesses for some time. They’re all dry and we’re all wet food. We thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if we put it all together and made a much bigger business?’ So, the decision to sell made a lot of sense.”

Graham adds: “It’s a big move and the end of an era. It’s certainly been quite a journey since we started the business.”

The Butchers Petcare business was originally part of Midland Meat Packers which was started in 1940 by Fred Baker as a butcher’s shop near Rugby. Baker exchanged the shop for a small slaughterhouse and then developed extensive farming interests. In 1980 a purpose-built Midland Meat Packers (MMP) slaughterhouse was established at Crick, by the four ‘Baker Boys’ brothers John, Edwin, Roger and Graham, which became the largest beef slaughtering plant in Europe, with 4,000 cattle passing through its doors every week. Since then, the Butchers Pet Care business has been exclusively run by Graham Baker who came up with the concept.

Today, Butcher’s Pet Care produces over six million units of pet food every week, which equates to enough product to feed ten pets every second. The business uses more than 200 tonnes of raw materials from the meat and poultry industry every working day.

Becoming part of the IPN business, Graham says that there are some “exciting plans” in the pipeline for the business to do more work in the European market.

“We’ve had a business in mainland Europe based in Poland, for quite some years, which is more of a sales/marketing branch and that’s grown quite nicely. We hope that with the IPN brands in the mix as well, we can develop that part of the business and it will grow faster.”

“It’s a big move and the end of an era. It’s certainly been quite a journey since we started the business.”

So, what’s next for Graham Baker now that is he is, as he says, “effectively retired”?

“I would like to travel a little bit more. I’ve got four acres of garden, which I want to develop. And most importantly, I’ve got six (now coming on seven) grandchildren who, over the last few years, I haven’t really had as much time with as I would have liked. I have absolutely plenty to do.”

As a past-Master of the Worshipful Company of Butchers (WCB), celebrating his 30th anniversary as a Liveryman at the end of the year, Graham is keen to stay involved with the Livery.

“I’d like to continue to support the WCB. I love to go to the monthly lunches, and I do really want to continue to be connected with people within the meat industry. In fact, when the story was announced a couple of weeks ago, someone I’ve dealt with for many, many years phoned me up, and said, ‘For goodness sake, make sure you keep connected with us,’ which was really nice. So, yes, I’ve got plenty to do and I’m not going to be bored.”