Poppy’s Picnic wins ‘Business Start-Up of the Year’ at the Business Leader Awards

Poppy’s Picnic has won ‘Business Start-up of the Year’ at the Business Leader Awards, following on from wins at the Wiltshire Business Awards and finalist announcements in the upcoming Rural Business Awards and NatWest Great British Entrepreneur Awards.

The competition judging panel, made up of experts in business and finance, unanimously voted for Poppy’s Picnic to win the award. Director Louise Mackintosh, was at the ceremony to receive the award from comedian Russell Kane at a gala dinner held at Ashton Court, Bristol.

The company featured on BBC’s Dragons’ Den, where founder Dylan Watkins and Mackintosh were offered four investment opportunities. The company also recently saw three of their products make the finals of the PetQuip Awards.

Since politely declining investment opportunities from the ‘Dragons’, including a £60,000 investment from Deborah Meaden, Poppy’s Picnic has successfully overfunded to raise £600,000 through crowdfunding, and has been part of the NatWest Entrepreneur Accelerator Programme.

The business has grown from an idea founded in Dylan’s kitchen, to a business valued at £4.8m, with plans to introduce a line of cat food in 2019.

Watkins said: “Our aim from the start has been to make it easier for more people to feed fresh. Much like humans should eat fresh food and avoid a processed diet to ward off obesity and disease, the same applies to our four-legged friends.

“Any fresh food in a dog’s diet is better than none and we make innovative products to help people switch completely to feeding our raw meals, or even just add a little boost to a kibble diet. It’s about being inclusive and helping people make changes for good, and our ever-growing family of Poppy’s Picnic feeders are helping us spread the word.”