Bruce’s Doggy Daycare appoints new MD

Bruce’s Doggy Daycare has announced the appointment of Ben Mann as its new managing director.

Mann has been with the company for five years and is stepping up to replace founder Bruce Casalis in the role.

His career has predominantly been in the events and hospitality sector, both in Australia and in the UK. He studied music management at Victoria University.

Mann went on to run live events and catering in Sweden, before turning to destination catering for locations such as Buckingham Palace.

Mann said: “Both sides of my career revolved around people. You start to build themes for catering, from seasonal ingredients and new menus through to wine pairings. For doggy day care; walking, playing and caring for dogs is one thing, but how do you enrich the overall experience for staff and dogs alike?”

“Throwing an afternoon tea party for dogs might seem cute and lovely, and is certainly more interesting for our staff, but how do we make it engaging for the dog? Can we hide items around the centre for them to sniff out, create food and drinks that are stimulating? It’s ultimately about thinking about what everything you do means for the customer and that’s largely our dogs.”

Bruce’s Doggy Daycare now has nine centres and had sales of £6m in 2021, up from £2.4m the year previously.