British pet food brand, Butchers Petcare, has secured a £27m refinancing deal from NatWest, RBS Invoice Finance and Lombard, to support its growth and innovation plans.
The funding deal which includes banking and asset-based lending facilities will support the East Midlands-based family-run business’ sustainability strategy, which includes an investment in plastic-free packaging across its dog food range.
Switching from plastic wrap to biodegradable cardboard and recyclable tins, means the company will remove the equivalent of 4.2 million plastic bottles from its packaging range.
The funding package has also funded a TV advertising campaign to support brand repositioning, the introduction of improved state of the art plant and machinery and the role out of the new Blink! cat food brand to customers.
Butchers Petcare was established in 1987 by Graham Baker, who comes from an award winning family of butchers and beef cattle farmers. Since growing the business to become the UK’s largest independent dog food manufacturer, Butchers Petcare is now forecast to turnover £100m over the next 12 months.
Graham Baker said: “Over the last 30 years we have built a reputation as one of the leading wet dog food brands in the UK, thanks to our commitment to using high quality ingredients and completely grain free recipes.
“Securing this finance package from NatWest, RBS Invoice finance and Lombard, will enable us to build the reputation of the brand further, by providing access to working capital required to invest in key areas of the business, including sustainable packaging and our TV marketing campaign. It’s an exciting time for the business and we can’t wait to introduce our new look products to customers over the coming months.”
Paul Mitchell, large corporate relationship director at NatWest, added: “Butchers is a long-standing family brand who we’ve had a dialogue with over a number of years The combined finance from NatWest, RBS Invoice Finance and Lombard will give the business flexibility, delivering a client focused solution which will support its innovative growth plans for the next 12 months and beyond.”
