“We have always had dogs and not a few: eight German bulldogs weighing 70 kilos. We fed them chowder and they looked good, but the dogs from other European countries looked better and we found out that it was thanks to their raw meat diet. We started doing it ourselves too and our dogs began to experience very positive changes”, explains Helena Bofill.
From then on, friends began to ask them to cook for their pets as well, until Bofill and his partner Pep Illa opened a workshop in Sant Celoni to produce and market natural food for dogs and cats under the Guau brand.
This was five years ago and along the way the entrepreneurs signed two friends, the brothers Núria and Jaume Gomis, as partners, so that they would professionalize the company. Currently, Wow
The food is produced in Les Franqueses del Vallès and sold mainly through the company's website, although they are also sold in stores. They distribute throughout Spain and are in talks with a distributor in Portugal.
By 2023, they have set the goal of making the leap to another neighboring country, France, and building a new warehouse. "We are already at the maximum of our production capacity," acknowledges Illa.
They explain that they have not lacked investment offers from large groups in the food sector, but they affirm that they have wanted to grow little by little with their own resources and maintain control over the company and its products. They employ more than 35 people, a workforce that grows month by month at a rate of two new hires per month.
Billing is also growing: they expect to reach a turnover of 2.5 million euros at the end of this financial year, an increase of 120% above their objectives. And all without losing sight of its raison d'être: "To offer the most affordable price on the market so that everyone can feed their dogs and cats naturally," says Pep Illa. “Our goal is to reach the whole world”, adds Helena Bofill. At the moment they have more than 15,000 customers in their online store.
