In this special episode of Barking Mad—recorded live at Interzoo 2026, the world’s largest pet industry trade show, and sponsored by Kallman Worldwide, Inc.—we sidestep the booths and bags to explore the founding stories, philosophies, and trends shaping the future of pet care. From personalized nutrition and shelf-stable fresh food to pet longevity research, veterinary telehealth, and entirely new product categories, this episode highlights the entrepreneurs challenging conventional thinking across the global pet industry.

Helpful Links

🎧 Missed our first episode from Interzoo 2026? Check it out here to get the scoop on the European pet care landscape!

💡 Learn more about the brands featured in this episode:

• Rolls Rocky
• Marleybones
• HappyBond
• Dr. Sam and Pivio
• King's Choice
• Kika Group

Show Notes

00:00 – Welcome Back to Interzoo 2026!

01:18 – Meet Angela Lanotte and her Family-Owned Italian Dog Treat Brand

08:31 – Meet The Founders Behind Marleybones

15:21 – Introducing Anja Skodda and the Science of Pet Longevity

21:49 – The Origin Story Behind Dr. Sam, One of Europe's First Online Veterinary Platforms

26:16 – The World's First Dog Juice? Hear the King's Choice Story

32:32 - Kika Group: A family business built on passion and expertise

40:15 - Final Reflections: What Connects Today's Pet Innovators?

40:42 – Stay Tuned for More from Interzoo 2026!

Jordan Tyler

Jordan Tyler

Over four days of the show, we conducted 34 interviews and gathered 12 plus hours of content. Today we'll share part two, which will focus less on Interzoo and the European pet market as a whole and dive deeper into the origin stories, philosophies and insights behind passionate entrepreneurs across the world. Welcome to Barking Mad, a podcast by BSM partners.

Jordan Tyler

I'm your host, Jordan Tyler. Now, as you would imagine, energy would pack to the brim with a wide variety of pet care products, but the conversations we had in the booth centered around a few common themes: humanization, health and wellness, and accessibility. And don't get me wrong, doing 34 interviews for four days was a lot, but I'd be lying if I said I didn't have fun.

Jordan Tyler

One of the most fun conversations I had was with Angela Lanotte, whose family's been making dog treats in Italy for decades. In our conversation, Angela touched on everything from traditional baking to changing consumer sentiments around pet traits. Let's hear it.

Angela Lanotte

Angela Lanotte

And I know that, you know, because everybody that comes here to talk to you about my boot, we have a huge booth with a special floor where you can see display all the cookies that we have.

Jordan Tyler

Angie describes many of rolls, and Rocky's treat options are designed around specific occasions or experiences, and that reflects just how much we, as pet owners want to feed our pets in ways that mirror our own eating habits.

Angela Lanotte

We produce everything in Italy, and this, I think, when you're talking about food, is kind of a plus. People loves Italian food. So, we do these cookies that of course they smell like cookies. Especially the vanilla one, the carrot one, the tomato one. They're really the milk one, the smelling like the cookie that you had when you were a kid.

Angela Lanotte

Then we are also the chamomile one, the chamomile and valerian, and the dog loving because they relaxed them. Yeah, it's functional too. Yes. Then we have the Parma ham. Do you know Italian prosciutto? It’s the red one. Very tasty. We had the hambone vacuum-packaged and we sell to the dog. And this one is another great bestseller idea that my dad had a long, long time ago talking about 42 years ago.

Angela Lanotte

And now we have a Christmas section that everybody stopped by. Because, ladies and gentlemen, listen this. However, cookies can be gone on the Christmas tree as a decoration. No. So then, of course, depends on your dog. If you have a very, you know, energetic dump, don't do it or do another separate Christmas but Christmas tree for him or for her.

Angela Lanotte

But like this is the idea. And so, we love also the Christmas because you know you want to celebrate now with your dog. The dog is no more just someone in the family is really a part of the family and this industry. I think that you can see all around we are a lot of things sometimes if we really.

Angela Lanotte

This is for dog. I thought, I thought it was the same of the human. Sometimes you had that kind of feeling, but it's important, especially when you want to feed them, even for the biscotti, because we do like the human body. But the point is that don't feed them with the human biscotti, because that one, they have too much sugar.

Angela Lanotte

In fact, my biscuit, they look like the human one if you can taste them. And then if you bark. I got the antidote, by the way. But if you don't bark and I'd say, like today, the vanilla and the milk one. I don't like to taste the gravy. One. The gravy. No. Yeah, I feel it. Then we have cookies plus rice together.

Angela Lanotte

And now we have the free collection. And fruit goes from the apple. That is the best seller. But we have also the banana. We have the kiwi, we have the pineapple, the kiwi and the berries and the berries. Like they taste so amazing when we produce that one in the factory you smell like because don't forget, we are like the kingdom of this.

Angela Lanotte

When do we have the day that they spell that they do vanilla? Everything taste or the berries? Everything taste better when they do gravy. Don't go, stay home. The day is marked working for me. So we are specialized items and now we have the light. Good morning, good night. Milk in the morning. Chamomile and valerian for the night. So you have really the full day.

Jordan Tyler

Can you smell that? It's humanization. One of the dominant themes at this year's show and really across the global pet care market. But where is the line between treating pets like family and treating them like the unique animals that they are? Angie had a few thoughts.

Angela Lanotte

The humanization of the dogs versus kids is all over the globe right now, and I'm fine with that. But sometimes we also to remind that it's not because we are vegan, that of course the dog is bigger, the dog doesn't burn vegan like the dog. And by the way, if we have to be really correct and sincere that my real customer is the dog. Of course, in the middle there is a person, a human being, and I'm fine to satisfy also the person.

Angela Lanotte

The point is that if the dog can choose which is by the nose. So, if you love my product and you, maybe you have to stay at my booth for a couple of minutes just to understand that when the dog pass by, they really jump in the booth because we had this glass ceiling window as it was the glass floor window.

Angela Lanotte

And of course they feel the smell then has. So, they really go on the window with the pulse. Try to to exactly. But it's a window so they can't scratch nothing, but they feel the smell and they stay there. So it means that my product works because the dog feel the smell it, they don't see the color. Yeah, we are colored mixed with that.

Angela Lanotte

They don't care if pink is blue is yellow. They don't know. It's just want to feel something that for them taste good. I have this small cookies. They like a mini heart shape. Yeah. And after a SUPERZOO event, I decided to change the color. And we had, of course, the color on the same that you have on your birthday cake.

Angela Lanotte

Pink. Blue. Of course, that color doesn't exist in nature, by the way. My friend, come and say, “Hey my love, we have to do the gender reveal for dogs.” And I was like, “What? And which color do you. What do you think? Should we do? Like a blue and pink only or mixed? And I was like, “…Honey, you know what?

Angela Lanotte

I'm not sure. But probably your dog is going to have six babies. Probably five. At least three for sure. And probably they're gonna be one baby boy. One girl—I don't know, I'm not an expert in this field.” You know you want to do the selection, but, like, if you pick blue, pick pink. I mean, I pick the blue because I bring home the baby boy with me.

Angela Lanotte

That makes sense. So, let's do the multicolor. Multi-Color is more, you know, universal love, you know, unicorn sexual rainbow, whatever. And I was laughing so much.

Jordan Tyler

I was also laughing so much in that interview. Angie was amazing, and I thought it was really cool how Rolls Rocky has stayed true to its legacy, while also meeting the needs of more modern pet owners. Continuing along the lines of humanization, the pet food landscape has changed dramatically over the last decade. As we seek to feed our pets more like we feed ourselves,

Jordan Tyler

we've seen an influx of new formats to the market, but the issue with a lot of these formats is they aren't as convenient as something that can sit on a shelf for months on end. It takes pet owners more consideration and planning to feed these formats, which has become a point of frustration, particularly for people that are living in small apartments or flats.

Jordan Tyler

Josephine Rode Bager

It was very much out of a personal frustration I had with my own dog, Marley, that were named after. He's the dog behind the brand. We started because I was—I moved to London. We're both Danish and at the time I was looking for high-quality food, but living in a small London flat, I just didn't have the room to store frozen, high-quality food or raw.

Josephine Rode Bager

So, I was looking to really bring quality into a shelf stable, sustainable format. And somehow, yeah, Mikala was still back in Denmark and convinced her to join in London to get bones that started. So yeah, we did during COVID.

Jordan Tyler

Lovely. Are you guys longtime friends? Did you go to school together?

Josephine Rode Bager

We’ve known each other for, I want to say fifteen, sixteen years?

Mikala Alexandra Wilson Skov

Yeah, yeah, been a while.

Josephine Rode Bager

Yeah, yeah, it's been a little more time. I actually lived in the same street in Copenhagen, so we were friends for co-founders.

Mikala Alexandra Wilson Skov

And you were a little bit crazy in the beginning.

Josephine Rode Bager

Yeah, I know in the beginning.

Mikala Alexandra Wilson Skov

Like, you were finishing your law degree. I was like, maybe become a lawyer? I don't know.

Josephine Rode Bager

Yeah. And you were like, are you sure you want to do that?

Mikala Alexandra Wilson Skov

It seems a bit hard…

Josephine Rode Bager

A couple people definitely thought it was really bad idea at the time. But no, I mean genuinely love Marley and wanted the best for him, but also wanted something that was, yeah, convenient for myself. So,bringing quality and convenience together felt like a really good option.

Mikala Alexandra Wilson Skov

And then. Yeah, yeah. And I think for me as well what really I mean, you are a very persuasive person. But really, back to your point on the gap in the market. I thought it was so unique that there there's all these high-quality options, but they're just not convenient for especially the urban Millennial that don't have, you know, an extra freezer for their dog food or don't have the space or on the go.

Mikala Alexandra Wilson Skov

And really, that modern pet parent where the dog is part of their everyday life and there just wasn't that convenient solution for them. I thought that was a problem that we really had to solve. We tried to bring quality and convenience throughout both our food but also our service. So, we tailor your dog's meal or health plan so we both have food, treats and supplements.

Josephine Rode Bager

Everything gets to your door and we yeah, you just have full and like a quick quiz. And then we get delivered to it all, the everything. Everything we do is about high quality convenience and at ease.

Jordan Tyler

Yeah. Fabulous. What is the quiz? Kind of like like what are some of the questions?

Josephine Rode Bager

Yeah, it's everything from like age, activity levels, body types.

Josephine Rode Bager

Don't judge. But everything that goes into yeah it's building out a plan. So it's. Yeah.

Mikala Alexandra Wilson Skov

Yeah. And then we also look at does your pet already have any health concerns that we can help. We're very also bones sort of look at what's where when it's reactive but exactly proactive I really think personalization is is what we're these are hyper focused on anything that we can do to ensure that that our customers feel hurt and that and feel like we can provide that the best health plan.

Josephine Rode Bager

So, everything from food to supplement to treats, ensuring that they are getting that all in one health service from us, which also includes things like an online vet service. So that's included in our subscription as well, which just provides that extra help and reassurance from that expert.

Mikala Alexandra Wilson Skov

It's not about like, here's a whole folio, take whatever you want.

Mikala Alexandra Wilson Skov

It's really giving that personalized advice. Like, this is what your dog at your age are bringing really needs and hoping to be that sounding board for our customers.

Jordan Tyler

Totally. Are there any trends in the industry that you guys think are totally overhyped? And we should just put them in a closet and shut the door forever? I think I think one some yeah, treats that are claiming to be like fresh breath or anything that's like clean, functional, but really aren't weather on enough in that to actually provide that functionality that is playing front of Pack?

Josephine Rode Bager

I find that a little bit annoying.. We very intentionally separate our supplements. That includes fractional ingredients from our treats that are training treats, high quality meat and some that sort of thing. But I think separating the two is quite important to not confuse consumers. And they're buying something that's functional. Yeah. When it actually isn't.

Jordan Tyler

Transparency is becoming more and more important to the people that by pet food, And Josephine and Mikala believe that younger pet owners are driving this in the UK.

Mikala Alexandra Wilson Skov

I think they're driving a lot of the premiumization. So they're really scrutinizing the label, their understanding more. They are also bigger part of increasing. I think every year pets become a bigger part of the family. They went from like household pets to like actual, like free baby, my baby.

Mikala Alexandra Wilson Skov

I think it's becoming stronger and stronger with the younger generation, the stronger that feeling. So they're definitely driving the premiumization, but I think they're also driving brands to become better and really thinking about the traceability and the quality of ingredients and making sure that we are providing the best, best possible nutrition.

Josephine Rode Bager

We tend to look a lot at the human space when we look into product innovation, I think they've had industries typically just a couple of years behind of where the human industry is going, I think.

Josephine Rode Bager

And a really interesting topic that I think consumers are getting a lot more educated on at the moment is all around gut health and the gut microbiome and how good God health really supports health overall. So that's something that we're trying to do a lot more be certain to, and trying to find someone who can really do research into the gut microbiome.

Josephine Rode Bager

So not just testing our food, but how does the food actually affect the dogs that, that we feed it with? So I think that's that's something that we're at least really keen on exploring and see whether we can really validate young claims through proper research.

Jordan Tyler

You know, we love data, so we'll definitely keep you posted about any future feeding studies or clinical trials at Marley Bones. In the meantime, let's move to our next founder, a scientist who's going all in on helping dogs live better for longer.

Anja Skodda

My name is Anja Skodda. I'm a scientist at biotech and by engineering, and I'm representing my own brand, Happy Bond. And we are speaking today, presented by Happy Bond about the future of pet longevity. And I spent the last 15 years in longevity research, bringing products from science and ideas to market. And I'm kind of excited to help consumers to enter products, perceive products that are science based and make them simple, to use them for your everyday life and especially for your pets.

Anja Skodda

I started the brand because of my bulldog Tony, who was skateboarding. He wasn't very passionate about other things, but skateboarding, and he had a Freitas in his shoulder and wasn't allowed to skateboard. My research is in tissue engineering, specifically arthritis, so I could use a supplement that I already used for Madras versus Antone, and he was back in a week.

Anja Skodda

And that kind of started the progress of, okay, I think I'm going to bring this to a to the market. And we now hold to us patents on that formulation. Launched it in the US in Germany as well. Had some celebrity partnerships attached to that product. But getting into the pet industry, I really wanted to do more and I feel the is kind of the only was the main thing that we can influence hat's life and longevity and aging.

Anja Skodda

So we also developed the first shelf stable fresh dog food that is very convenient and parenting packaged in a glass jar. Sustainable, reusable. And we just heard transparency is important. We really just use ten whole food ingredients. No synthetic vitamins or minerals. Still complete a balance for AAFCO guidelines, and it has a shelf life of over three years.

Anja Skodda

Without preservatives. So that's kind of what I wanted to give to pet parents. The convenience, but also still feeding your dog fresh and healthy food and to make them live longer and better and not just longer, but mainly better. This is in those years and now we evolving HappyBond into a more longevity brand, to add some AI and new tools and epigenetics to it, actually prove that you're doing the right thing and you have sturdy a little bit short on affinity.

Anja Skodda

I don't know if everyone understands because you talked about genetics. So I always see that, you know, if you want to explain it in lemon terms and music, your genetics, basically the piano you've been given; if it's a Steinway or Yamaha, you don't know. But that's what your have, and the epigenetics is really how you play the music.

Anja Skodda

Yes. And you can change that. Obviously you can train. It can be better. Everything can can be adjusted. But you need to be in training is a good part. You need to be consistent and do the right things. And epigenetic influence is influenced by lifestyle, nutrition, movement and environment obviously. So we can change that. And in the human space, there's been a lot of research done to epigenetic clocks.

Anja Skodda

Steve Horowitz, “the king of clocks,” and started that development. And there are a handful of great epigenetic clocks that we can actually see a lot of things that we can monitor about our health way earlier than a blood panel would show. Yeah. Now translating that to dogs. And I just really love that we have that opportunity in pets because first of all, the metabolism is so much faster.

Anja Skodda

So we don't have to wait 70 years to see results. It's much faster. And also we are really in charge of their diet, and we try to change human behavior to consistently eat one healthy diet. Good luck for that desk work. And the dog won't open the fridge at night. I won't drink the extra glass of wine and they just do what we give them.

Anja Skodda

And we have that big power to make an impact on their health and aging. And through nutrition, which happens every day, 365 days a year through their whole life. So that's why I think it's so powerful. There's obviously movement in Asian and and environment and obviously the microbiome, which is another big research point. But the nutrition is really so important and that we can influence.

Anja Skodda

So that's why we wanted to show that with epigenetics and that test, we did a pilot study that showed how we can influence the quality of nutrition and how that influences the aging.

Jordan Tyler

Anja points to something we're seeing more and more—instead of aiming to increase lifespan for our pets, we should really be considering health span. In other words, it's less about adding years and more about adding extra years, but making sure they're not totally miserable.

Anja Skodda

The longevity space for humans should be the same for pets. And they are great brands and great companies that do a lot of research in that field also, notably health. That is really important to the scientific way. What I, what I really don't like is the we see the same ingredients for years and years, and it's just different ways of packaging that truly.

Anja Skodda

So that's not innovative in my opinion. No. Like, you know, you need to bring up have we have to really look at the supplements and get a little bit more innovative from that.

Jordan Tyler

Another area of the pet care realm that's rapidly evolving is veterinary care. Widespread consolidation, private investment and higher prices are making it challenging for some pet owners to access affordable, reliable veterinary care. So we need to look for other solutions. At interview, I sat down with Jan and Alex Wholesale, the husband and wife team behind Doctor Sam, one of Europe's earliest veterinary telehealth platforms, and their newest bencher, Pivo.

Dr. Jan Holzapfel

Yeah, I'm Jan and I started my first company, Dr. Sam, like eight, nine years ago already. I have an economics background, so I'm in this industry for ten years now, but before that worked for big corporates and did other amazing stuff. And I'm super happy to be in the industry now and help people all over the place.

Alice Holzapfel

Jordan Tyler

Like many founders in the pet world, Dr. Sam was born out of personal experience.

Alice Holzapfel

Yeah, the truth was that my husband was complaining that I had no more time for the famous than because I have so many friends and they all have pets and I cannot—I need to help everybody. Yeah, but that's why I'm a vet also.

Alice Holzapfel

And I had so many videos and chats on my phone. Always okay, I need to know something. And then he says, “Uh, hallo, sorry, you know you have a family also?” And see how this idea grows. Doing something different. And when we thought, okay in human is already working with telemedicine, so I cannot redo something like that. And that's how the idea came off and how all began.

Dr. Jan Holzapfel

Yeah. So it was very personal. Yes. Yeah. But personal actually. And it's also the first company the name is Dr. Sam. And Sam was our first dog we had together. So, the out of this dog, the idea came up to name the company after our first doctor.

Jordan Tyler

I love that. What kind of dog was Sam?

Dr. Jan Holzapfel

Australian shepherd.

Jordan Tyler

Oh, beautiful.

Dr. Jan Holzapfel

Such super sweet.

Jordan Tyler

As Dr. Sam grew, Jan and Alice started noticing patterns and the questions pet owners were asking. This led them to a new venture, using the data they'd been collecting in tandem with AI to support decision making across stakeholders in the pet care ecosystem.

Dr. Jan Holzapfel

I mean, what we saw is after thousands and thousands and you could even say millions of consultations via chat, via video, we learn more and more that there is a certain structure, that there are questions that repeat themselves, that there are answers that repeat.

Dr. Jan Holzapfel

And so we found out that there's looking at the structure that we could use this data to somehow also help others, other companies to somehow use this data. And what we build is actually out of this, an AI infrastructure. We founded another company which was Pivio, our second company, and all this data now is readily available for other companies to be used in a B2B service services where you could say, so what we typically do, for example, we work with insurance companies, help them with triaging for their injuries, or we work together with pet food companies who want to somehow lead their customers to the right product to find the right product, or if they

Dr. Jan Holzapfel

have questions related to their pet health, we also help them. So it's basically a service which can be implemented within the whole pet health vertical or even the pet care vertical. So it's quite broadly adaptable to each individual need.

Jordan Tyler

Yeah. I also wonder if animal shelters could use it to help decrease their class they food.

Dr. Jan Holzapfel

Yes, absolutely. And for now, we don't have a partner there yet, but we would be super happy to have animal shelters to head even to, to provide them a service for free so that they can use it for their pets as well.

Jordan Tyler

You've heard us talk about it before, but the pet industry is full of imitation. Innovation, on the other hand, can be hard to come by in a highly regulated category like pet nutrition. That is, unless you come across King's Choice. I sat down with Milos Ckrkic to talk about his product, which combines the elements of a treat, a supplement, and hydration into what he calls the world's first juice for dogs.

Milos Ckrkic

I'm the head of sales of King Choice. We're the first—we are the producers of the first dog juice in the world. I would love to tell you a short story of how this idea came to be. So, it really comes like many other genius ideas, right? It came from a leisure time, from a moment of leisure.

Milos Ckrkic

Our owner, Đorđe, was sitting with his little Yorkshire, Simba on his lap and, you know, he was thinking, okay, if I'm meeting something, the little guy will want a piece of the action. There are so many different snacks and entries I can give him, but if I'm opening can of soda, if I'm making a fresh lemonade, if I'm drinking a coffee, there's like really no way to reciprocate that, to share the experience itself.

Milos Ckrkic

So he came up with this idea and one of the first things he did, and it turned out to be one of the best business decisions overall, he made very early was leaving the recipe to the real experts. Right? So he went straight to the to the professors from our Faculty of Veterinary medicine back in Belgrade. They made a great recipe, fully functional, 100% healthy, zero sugars, of course, zero artificial ingredients.

Milos Ckrkic

It has many, many functional benefits. It's good for the. The juice is good for the eyesight, for the bones. It has collagen in it. It has many amino acids, so it's good for the vitality and the muscles of the dog. Every single juice has a different extract of from a different fruit. So it comes with raspberry, pineapple and blueberry at the time and every single flavor.

Milos Ckrkic

Also, every single juice also has a different meat flavor, right? So it's pork, chicken and beef. And this is the part that makes the dogs absolutely go for it. Right. So we believe it's very, very innovative. And we came to we soon came to the realization that it's a category of its own really. Like you could call it a treat.

Milos Ckrkic

You could call it a supplement, you could call it a drink. But King Choice is really at the perfect intersection between all three, right? Because you can give it a home as a treat for a nice meal after a long day. If you're out in a part during a long stroll or maybe a hiking trip, like you can always pull out a really nice, refreshing drink.

Milos Ckrkic

And the most unique part really is that it can. You will also find it in a in your favorite pet friendly cafe, right? So you'll take the espresso just like the way you want it. And the waiter will of course offer case choice to your dog as a is a refreshing drink.

Jordan Tyler

It's amazing. Yeah. Where is it currently available?

Milos Ckrkic

So currently it's available besides Serbia where we're based off. It's a real it's available in some European Union countries like Croatia, Slovenia. We're about to do our first export in Greece. We're very excited about that. But it's also in Cyprus. Currently it's in Malta. And yeah, that's the main reason why we're here, because we let's say we kind of we have a very strong basis.

Milos Ckrkic

We have our foundation set. So we're looking for a rapid expansion. So we're talking to many people out here. And hopefully by the end of the year we'll you'll find it in Germany as well in Italy, in France and Spain. And you know, going west, we hope to arrive to the United States by year’s end. And at the end of the day, we let the juice speak for itself.

Milos Ckrkic

Right. We've—at this faire in particular, we've yet to see a dog refuse it. Exactly.

Jordan Tyler

What's the most popular flavor? Is there a more popular flavor?

Milos Ckrkic

I have to say, and this is a very good question. It's a common one we're getting. I don't know if I'm being biased. For me, it's raspberry. Personally, and I, both colleagues share the same sentiment for the dogs.

Milos Ckrkic

I think they go crazy. Maybe not 33-33-33—not an equal split, but I think there's really no like big a big disparity between the three. Yeah, maybe they appreciate the variety, right?

Jordan Tyler

Our conversation naturally turned to some of the trends Milos has seen across the global pet market. And at this point in the episode, you shouldn't be surprised at where he takes us next.

Milos Ckrkic

Being relatively new to the industry, I had to do a lot of reading to catch up with all of the trends and everything, and one one piece of data that stuck with me, at least for Europe. I'm sure that the trend follows. The numbers are similar in the US is that around three quarters of pet owners look at the nutrition and the quality of the food and the ingredients in the same way that they would be looking as if it was for them in their household.

Milos Ckrkic

Right? The label needs to be very clear. It needs to be very clean. Not too much mumbo jumbo. You need to have scientifically backed information and data and studies and so on, that easy to come by and easy to find. And these are all things, of course, that we made sure to have an incorporated case choice.

Jordan Tyler

I can't say I've seen anything else like it.

Jordan Tyler

I do see a lot of like hydration supplements and liquid supplements seem to be growing and growing, as I do think pet owners are becoming more and more aware of how important hydration is. But this is really, you know, taking it to another level, a level of fun and almost, you know, humanization.

Milos Ckrkic

It's good that you mention humanization. It's really become table stakes at this point. Right? You'll walk through inter zoo and you'll see so many products that try to humanize the whole experience and everything. I think the general direction that most productive manufacturer are going for is, okay, let's increase the quality, right. This goes back to what I said earlier, because the consumers obviously want the best, the best for their pets.

Milos Ckrkic

And that's an article. But I think again, the direction many, many factors are going for is let's increase the overall body of the food. Let's use 100% healthy ingredients. Let's use the best of the best when it comes to the raw ingredients. What we bring when it comes to humanization is the new experience and you mentioned.

Milos Ckrkic

But of course it has to be healthy. And it is and it's and it's, you know, best in class made by professors. But when we say humanization, we mean, okay, let's bring owners something that they couldn't do before with their dog, okay. So, we can spoil them with food. We can buy them a bed, we can buy them clothes, accessories.

Milos Ckrkic

But let's expand on the experience that we have with our dogs. It could be again in a bench in a park. It could be in a cafe. Bring it anywhere. Anywhere a dog goes. Really.

Jordan Tyler

While some brands focus on a single category like dog juice, others operate across multiple aspects of pet care. Kika Group in Lithuania is a great example. I had the pleasure of meeting Pollio, salesman at Inner Zoo, and the story he told me about his family's company spanned retail, grooming, breeding, manufacturing, nutrition. Probably the better question to ask was what don't you guys do?

Paulius Ausmanas

Big pleasure to be here. My name is Paulius and I'm coming from Lithuania. So, it's a small country in the northern part of Europe. And we had a ninth time of Interzoo. So we're kind of like internationally for about 18 years. And I represent Kika Group company. And Kika Group company, it’s a family company. I’m also a member of the family.

Paulius Ausmanas

Jordan Tyler

Congrats.

Paulius Ausmanas

Thank you very much. And we are I believe that we're a little bit different than anybody else because we have very comprehensive experience, because first of all, my mother-in-law, when she was 16 years old, she went into she had a dream, you had a poodle, and it was quite difficult days, and it was really tough to get it.

Paulius Ausmanas

And she the dream came true when she was 16 years old. So the name of the poodle was Kika. And that's why the company is called Kika. But talking about the experience, we do have our own pet specialty chain store in Lithuania, in Estonia. So, we have 120 plus stores. And it's quite a big density, I would say, because in Lithuania we have less than 3 million people and we have 70 stores.

Paulius Ausmanas

Then in Estonia we have less than 1 million people and we have 50 stores. So, it's… we're very crowded, I would say, in those countries. But, you know, it gives us a lot of understanding. What does what does it mean to be a retailer? Because we will go further and we I will talk a little bit about the brand, but you sell the brand to the retailer and you need to understand what they care about, what is important for that?

Paulius Ausmanas

You know, sometimes what we speak about the products. We speak a lot about the features of the products, how cool we are, you know, your unique selling points and so on. But for the retailer, he loves what he's doing. But at the end of the day, he needs to pay the rent and to pay the salaries, right? So when we are retailer, we and we step into the shoes of the other guys to whom we're selling in other countries.

Jordan Tyler

In part one, we explored how regional differences can influence how people seek out and buy pet products. Paulius offered an interesting perspective from the Baltic region, where Kika has built an extensive retail presence over the last decade. Many of their products originated from specific problems they encountered through their own experiences as breeders, retailers and pet owners.

Paulius Ausmanas

So my mother in law, she's the breed preserver. She's breeding, I would say preserving, more the Maltese Bichon and Pomeranians. It's a very cute but very challenging breed. I bet. So, because of those breeds, I would say we had to invent the products because we were able to understand the true nutritional needs through code and skincare needs. And, you know, we have probably more than 2,400 champion titles of our dogs.

Paulius Ausmanas

So we're a little bit of pet freaks, in a good way, a good way. We travel the world. One of our dogs has more than 64 champion titles. So, we say it's like a GOAT—you know, the Greatest Of All Time dog in the world. My mother-in-law, she was nominated as the best Pomerania breeder in USA two years in a row, being a Lithuanian lady.

Paulius Ausmanas

So, you can imagine how passionate we are in in everything, what we do. We couldn't be here where we are today without this ecosystem because it comes as an understanding what what are the needs of the debts because, you know, it's in our company was never about money. Money will come. Money is an outcome. But if we do good, if we really change the life of the pets and pet parents and make it more healthier, you know, doing, having like less anxiety in a family, people are, you know, willing to, to contribute.

Paulius Ausmanas

So we always say that none of the products that we created actually. Whereas for the money. Yeah, we created as a solution because we notice a problem. And one of the problems that we noticed many years ago, it was about the tear stains on the white dogs. Yeah. You see a lot of dogs has a tear stains. And then we said, okay, how we can get rid of the tear stains because first of all, it doesn't look nice, right?

Paulius Ausmanas

It's like something dirty. And is it possible to remove it. Not like dying or cutting out or something like that, but just remove it. And then we started to stream with the various nutritionists and said, hey, why nobody invented something that it would really work in a natural way. Not for models, treatments, not antibiotics or something like that, just something that why does it happen?

Paulius Ausmanas

And of course, we said to ourselves that let's try to do it because we have a factory and we institute that. Nutrition is a core thing here. So, it took longer than we expected. It took three years of the data and research, trials, so forth and so on. I mean, we did hundreds of the blood tests, hundreds of the feces tests and so on.

Paulius Ausmanas

And then we finally we ended up by having a product, a food which helps to get rid of the tear stains. And then people say, okay, is it like, can I do it? Like in the next day it's going to go on now? We said, it's natural. You need to waitAnd it took it takes actually, you know, from 6 to 8 weeks to see the result because the new force starts growing, you know, in a color you need and it's a white color.

Paulius Ausmanas

We don't stop the, the tearing. We don't close the eye channels, tier channels or something. We just make it like it's supposed to be transparent and clear. So what? It was one of the core products that we became like, more famous in the world have it because of the challenge that we had in the past.

Jordan Tyler

Jordan Tyler

After 35 years, 120 plus stores and 65 countries, Paulius says it always comes back to one thing.

Paulius Ausmanas

It's about the passion, and patience. Yes, it's the two Ps. It's not like four Ps or five Ps like in marketing, but it's to be, you know, passion and patience. Unfortunately, the patience you always want to have a little bit quicker things done. But you have to have it.

Paulius Ausmanas

And you know we are family company. We're not huge company. And I think that this is the thing what we do different world somehow appreciate that because they have the higher goal is to just improve the well-being of pets and to have less anxiety for the parents.

Jordan Tyler

So, there you have a glimpse into the mines behind some truly passionate founders in pet care across Europe. They may be taking different approaches, but the common denominator will always be improving the lives of pets and their people, whether through new services, new technologies or completely new categories. Each of these entrepreneurs is working to solve a real problem we're facing as pet owners, and hearing and seeing some of that passion firsthand was definitely a highlight of the show.

Jordan Tyler

A huge thank you again to Angela, Josephine and Mikala, Anja, Dr. Jan and Alice, Milos, and Paulius for sharing their time and insights with us today. We'd also like to thank our dedicated team: Jacob Parker, Cady Wolf, Neeley Bowden, Ada-Miette Thomas, and Anna Guilfoyle. A special shout out to David Perez for our original music in the intro and outro. See you next time.