Wilsons: Raw ambition, smoother operations
From multiple manual payments to pawsome efficiency
“We can probably do this a lot better” was the thought that crossed Craig Wallace’s mind when he, alongside his business partner and family, acquired Wilsons, a struggling dog food company.
With a background in food manufacturing and consultancy, his goal was to “produce a higher quality dog food for a reasonable price”. But finding a better way to feed our four-legged friends meant spending two years building a new factory to match their ambitions.
Having self-funded the build, it was only when they launched their first product, a cold-pressed dog food, that they started making money. Then they followed the customer, “We started doing raw pet food because that was all the rage… and then we decided we could do as minimal processing as possible so we’re not listing things on the back of the pack that people don’t understand”.
They then pivoted to fresh food, offering the same benefits with even better convenience and soon the sales success began to reflect the quality of the product, as Craig says, “when people switch to our food, they very seldom switch off it”. Today, 55% of Wilsons' sales come directly from consumers, while the remaining 45% come from sales to pet food shops, supermarkets, and manufacturing food for other suppliers.
Paws for thought
But building a factory and a business can lead to some industrial-sized challenges. Craig explains, “Running pet food factories is incredibly expensive, your electric bill could be 15 grand a month… so the amount of overheads you need to scale a brand when you’re doing production is vast.”
They are reliant on a strong marketing strategy to reach customers, but “We’re competing against big businesses who can afford to spend a lot more money acquiring a customer”. It’s also a challenge just keeping up with constant changes across different marketing tools and channels, which, as a small team, Craig says they sometimes “feel a bit left behind”.
When you then factor in the size of the business, Craig realised they needed more internal financial support in order to get a clearer picture of not just the overall state of the business but the day-to-day needs. Craig explains that “trying to employ a team big enough to manage it just becomes another overhead, so tools like Apron and automating tasks become hugely important.”
Keeping tails wagging
When Craig found himself making “15 or 20 manual payments a day, and feeling like I can’t keep up,” he booked a demo with Apron. He signed up straight away, saying, “If it saves me an hour a week, it’s worth it, but actually it saves me three or four.” Rolling it out to the entire senior team for payments has saved even more time for everyone.
With payroll, Craig explains, it’s reduced his anxiety about getting people paid on time. “I’d be sitting making manual payments, but now, as soon as the payslips go into Apron, I can just approve and pay them in advance”. The team is also using expense cards, ending the need for senior approval of basic expenses, meaning no more interrupted meetings or miscommunications over spending. The benefits of more time and reduced stress are clear, “It allows me to go and get a new contract, or focus on the performance side or the marketing, it’s huge”.
With a more streamlined finance set up, Craig is looking to the future, specifically “getting our food in front of more people,” helping to grow the business and improve dinner time for all the nation's pets.
