Controlling your manufacturing here in Britain, does that mean you can have a tighter control on
the quality of the products you're putting out? Everything is quality checked before it goes out.
Our workforce is British, we manufacture in Britain and our suppliers where possible we ensure
they're British. So with the team you've got here what's the range that you're manufacturing and
putting out to the marketplace? Obviously it's pet beds. We try to supply most types of pet beds. Our
strong product is our waterproof pet bed. I actually believe that we make the best one
on the market. What we're going to do now is we're going to have a look at some of the manufacturing
that's going on here and see a little bit of the skill involved and the process involved.
Okay we're seeing Tracy here and she's working on... what bed is she working on? She's working
one of the rectangle waterproof beds. Okay. She's actually putting the base on it at the moment.
So Andy we've just had a look at this bed being manufactured by Tracy. I can tell immediately
that it feels robust, it looks quality, it looks like it might last a while but it's your bed...
talk us through the key points. Right, it's our top of the range rectangle waterproof bed.
Materials are a heavy-duty material which is waterproof bonded to the rear of the material
and they've got a water repellent coating on the exterior of the material. Easy to keep clean.
It's filled with a bonded fibre
and firmly stitched into place so it will always keep this shape. So the bonded fibre,
what's the difference between that and the normal fiber do you find? Well you can get a loose blown
fiber - the problem with it is it compacts up and moves within the casing of the bed.
By using a bonded fiber it will always stay in place and the bed will keep its shape.
We've all seen beds where all the sides have gone floppy and that will not happen with this bed.
They're not going to be coming back and saying "Oh that bed only lasted two months.
I'll never buy another one." This bed is durable hard wearing should last a reasonably good
length of time and their customers should be happy.
We're looking at Clive here now and he's starting to stuff the... what would you call that... the
outside, the outer? He's stuffing the outside ring with bonded fiber which has been pre-cut to shape.
And this is an oval bed, is it? It's an oval... it's a what I'll call a Labrador size - what we
call the large oval waterproof bed. And is this... would I be right in saying this is the most
popular in your range? It is our best-selling bed funnily enough - green Labrador size
oval waterproof... oval waterproof, yeah. Okay but it's not all about waterproof and uh....
no we do other fabrics as well. Sherpa fleece fabric as well and we do an imitation suede what
they call faux suede, which funnily enough that fabric is very hard wearing as well.
So the theme that comes through for everything you've talked to us about is
quality and robustness yes so people are going to get a bed that I think as we said earlier isn't
going to fall to bits hopefully will last a bit of attention from a dog but a determined dog will
always you know find out what's inside if it wants to I know that from experience um but quality and
British made is kind of the watchword. It is the selling point. It is the only way a small family
firm like ours can survive. You've got to make a product that customers will come back and buy
time and time again. "I've had one a few years, I liked it, it's lasted, I will make sure I go
and buy another one of the same make". It's survival. Andy I think that's a great place
to end this. We hope you more than survive... we hope you thrive. Thanks for your time.