Thinking out loud here, but would this work?

motorguy

I've been thinking about this one for a couple of weeks now, so its just in total infancy stage.

Basically, we've a couple of dogs and every couple of weeks we make an expedition to the nearest pet superstore and cart a couple of 15KG bags of dog food into the car and home again. Its maybe a 45 min return trip and theres really little other reason for being there - AND theres little or no competition. I'm paying £27.49 a bag for a 15kg bag of pedigree chum adult dog pellets there - yet i came across another pet food outlet (well outside our local area) doing the same food two bags for £35, and i;m sure they're still making plenty.

My thinking is, to offer dog food, cat food and cat litter as a delivery service. I'd source them wholesale, pallet them up in my garage, then deliver them out to people in the evenings, either based on telephone or internet orders placed via a simple website, taking payment on delivery.

It would be relatively simple to set up regular deliveries to people, say weekly or fortnightly and set up regular orders. I could 'value add' to their orders by offering 'promotions' on other product lines - pet toys, shampoos, etc.

Theres maybe 10 various size towns and villages (around 80,000 people) within maybe a 5 mile radius of where i live, so i could maybe do one town per night over a fortnight, so as to cut down on my mileage.

I've a towbar on my car so my only initial outlay would be a box trailer (second hand), there'd be no storage costs as i could maybe get 10 pallets in my garage, and then it would be down to flyers, canvassing round doors and word of mouth to build up the trade.

I know of one guy who does it comfortably as a part time job, but he specialises in a particular type of dog food popular in the gun dog arena.

If i'd six customers per night and made £12 gross per customer, four nights a week, i'd gross £288 a week.

Obviously i'd need to check wholesalers prices and also establish what are the most popular brands next.

Can anyone see any massive holes in this as a possible second income?

pitkin2020

Seems a feasable idea. The only problems I can see is having to carry to much of a variety of food. Expenses, whilst you reckon on £12 gross per customer you will have the extra fuel cost, insurance, advertising and tax to come out of that, even at 50% your gross will be £6 per customer, not a bad return.

Is someone likely to get through a 15kg bag in a fortnight??

Anyway I think you could start it for less than say £500 inc stock and getting some advertising going. Even if it doesn't work out you'll recoup some money back on the stock.

Nothing ventured nothing gained

martin1018

Have you checked out the internet? Just a glance at a google search for 'pet food franchise' showed me two - Oscar and Trophy - and that was before scrolling down on the first page, there may be more. They're obviously your first line in competitors, there may be some like yourself who are going alone.
A good idea which has already been made by others, but well worth investigating for your local area. Good luck.

COOLTRIKERCHICK

sounds good in theory..

but having been in te pet trade for umtpeen years before... it will not be that simple.

the petshop/store is prob is buying so much various stock, they are on the best discount rate. or even getting pallets loads delivered direct.

same with the gundog/working dog food the guy is prob part of a gundog/working club or association so is well known around this circle, so has built up a reputation..

if you are storing the food in your gargae you will have the problem of rats/mice food mite which is brought on by the diff in humid and temp in your garage. which will also have an effect on the food as well as the mite.

you will also declare that you are using your garage as a storage for your new business, so will have to go through the proper proceedure with the council etc, your car insurance will then have to change as you are then using it for business use, and you will also have to have public liability insurance.

dont forget fuel is creeping up again... and remember 2 years ago it was at an all time hight approx 1.40+ a litre, which would cripple your margins..

when we were in the trade and was buying from wholesalers/ and specialist cash and carry some products including the pedigree range were cheaper for us to buy in the supermarket to re-sell on... in all honesty to be competative you will be lucky to make between £1- 3 a sack of dog food. before expenses..

Dont forget supermarkets deliver now and stock the pedigree range.. and sacked dog food.. so alot of people are having pet food delivered anyway.

paulwf

The business model certainly passes 2 tests:

- The items are literally consumables so you can get plenty of repeat business

- We have 3/4 cats at any one time and get through around £400 of food and pet products a year so generating a high enough turnover should be possible

We use Viovet and save 1/3 over what we used to pay locally. What is amazing is how many friends we have converted to buying pet food online, and even every courier that has dropped it off has asked about it. People are savvy when shopping for bread and milk etc yet pet food which is a costly item is to many people an unknown. I believe there is huge potential to "educate" people and switch them over from buying from the high st.

I think it would only work if you can get the right supply chain, i.e. be able to advertise a large range of products and be able to get them from a wholesalers within 48 hours. Loads of online companies work by ordering from wholesalers as soon as a customer places an order, and I get the impression from Viovet that some of their larger items they get in to order.

Cooltrickertrick makes a very good point about the discount structure, you'll need to do lots of work into the wholesaler structure to see whether you can get the numbers to work. I think there will be room to undercut the high st on premium cat food though.

Fuel is another good point, but compared to rising courier costs for online businesses and the cost of premises for traditional stores the costs for you should still be reasonable.

How are you going to advertise the business? Vets won't want to know as they all sell food, there are plenty of other avenues but will they drive enough business your way?

Sounds like a fun project...please keep us updated, it should work in theory but will all come down to the wholesalers.

DKLS

I would happily use the service, especially if you could supply huge bags of cat litter, around 30Kg would be ideal.
And it would also benefit me, if you offered a recurring service that I could sign up to say:

8 Boxes of Purina pouches
15 Kg Of Purina Cat biscuits
30Kg of Litter
Every month rather than have to order online each month with me and many others cost isnt so much of an issue my time is.

Caroline73_2

pgilc1 wrote: »

I've been thinking about this one for a couple of weeks now, so its just in total infancy stage.

I know of one guy who does it comfortably as a part time job, but he specialises in a particular type of dog food popular in the gun dog arena.

Can anyone see any massive holes in this as a possible second income?

If this bloke is making a good living in this specialism - why hasn't he branched out into what your suggesting?