Bella & Duke is a premium pet food brand, passionate about providing delicious pet nutrition directly to customers. Their commitment to the highest quality ingredients and dedication to pets has earned them an exceptional reputation amongst pet owners. In 2023, the business and their investors partnered with Drayton to secure a CEO to drive the business forward through the next phase of growth.
The Context
As the UK’s leading subscription-based raw pet food company, Bella & Duke are a purpose-led business with a unique culture. Bella & Duke make it their mission to manufacture the best food possible for the millions of pets across the UK. Their high-quality ingredients are sourced from the BRC accredited factories in the human supply chain without unnecessary additives.
Founded in 2016 by two friends passionate about improving pet nutrition through healthy food options, Bella & Duke had grown exponentially. As well as the finest raw dog and cat food, Bella & Duke’s product offering also includes mouth-watering treats, supportive supplements and other healthy, helpful care-related items.
In 2021 BGF and Gresham House invested, providing a step-change capital injection that helped facilitated the establishment of their own high class manufacturing footprint and a further strengthening of their people resource.
Bella & Duke had thrived under the leadership of their two founders, Mark Scott and Tony Ottley. Mark had led the business for seven years as CEO and co-founder Tony Ottley as COO. Mark had decided that now was the time to step aside as CEO, migrate to NED, and secure a first class, proven external leader.
Search Overview
Drayton swiftly sought to build with a deep understanding of the Bella & Duke business but also the wider market dynamic – helped by our extensive work in the pet category with the likes of Butternut Box, Forthglade and MPM.
Drayton's Process
Drayton’s specialism in identifying exceptional talent through industry-leading, global-spanning networks was essential to this and every search. The key to delivering our outstanding results for clients is through our meticulous, communicative process. Here’s what that looked like for Bella & Duke’s CEO search:
Results Delivered
At the helm of a company, James sees his position at Bella & Duke as a privilege and was immediately raring to build on the momentum of the business’ outstanding growth and reputation.
Under his leadership, Bella & Duke’s phenomenal reputation has only strengthened, recognised by All About Dog Food (AADF) as not only the highest rated raw dog food in the UK, but also as the highest rated dog food in the UK across the board.
Drayton thoroughly enjoyed the relationship developed with Bella & Duke, BGF and Gresham House during the CEO process, appreciating their valuable feedback and forthcoming transparency at every stage. This enabled a high-quality, efficient process that yielded an exceptional result in the appointment of James.