UK business Years, which sells fresh and “minimally processed” food for dogs, is looking across the English Channel after securing investment.
Equity investor Verlinvest and VC firm Five Seasons Ventures have backed the Nottingham-based business. The terms of the deals, including the size of the investments, was not disclosed and the new partners declined to comment further.
Set up in 2023, Years’ business has centred on selling its dog food via the DTC channel but the company has secured listings at retailers including Pets at Home.
Co-founder and CEO Darren Beale said Years, which is expanding its production capacity, is eyeing further bricks-and-mortar contracts and a move into continental Europe.
“Europe is a natural next step for us and we’re approaching it with the same discipline that’s driven our UK success,” Beale told Just Food.
“Benelux and Germany are our initial target markets since both have consumers who already understand quality and provenance in food and that translates directly to how they think about what they feed their dogs.”
Beale said Years is looking to increase its “operational footprint” from 26,000 to 69,000 square feet, meaning the company will “have the infrastructure to move quickly and do it properly”.
He added: “Manufacturing is the backbone of what makes Years possible. The more important number is capacity: because of the efficiencies we’re building in, we expect that to translate into roughly four times our current output."
The company declined to comment on its annual sales or profits but said it has seen “80% year-on-year growth” since it was set up three years ago.
Years says it has sold more than 12 million dog-food meals that are “tailored to a dog’s weight, age and nutritional profile”.
Verlinvest, which allocates capital on behalf of the family-controlling shareholders of brewing giant AB InBev, has backed pet-food businesses. It has invested in companies including US e-commerce firm Chewy.com and in UK cat-food business KatKin.
Anaïs Jollivet, a senior principal at Verlinvest, pointed to its investment in Belgium-based pet-food firm Tom&Co.
“Backing brands through European expansion is something Verlinvest knows well. Tom&Co, our pet retail brand, has built a strong presence across Belgium and France and that kind of operational experience and retail network is exactly what we bring to Years as it enters new markets,” Jollivet said. “The brand has proven the model. Now it’s about scaling it.”
