Finding a CEO for Bella & Duke

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, they partnered with Drayton to find them the paw-fect CEO to lead them through significant changes whilst maintaining their quality and performance as a brand.

Role CEO

Consultant Rob Seery

The Context

As the UK’s leading subscription-based raw pet food company, Bella & Duke are a purpose-led business which offers unique products for their furry end consumers. Pet owners often worry about providing healthy, natural food for their pets, so 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 to £25.9m with 35,000 subscribers following a significant increase after the Covid-19 pandemic. 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. They truly put pets first, driven as a business to constantly learn and grow to align themselves and champion the needs of pets.

Bella & Duke is a founder-led SME, with co-founder Mark Scott serving as CEO for seven years and co-founder Tony Ottley still serving as COO. Across the 133-headcount, the values-driven culture and love of pets is reflected in their exciting growth trajectory and passion-filled end product. The leadership team is of an exceptional calibre with strong personal investment in the business, something else too.

In 2021, Bella & Duke’s potential for even further success was identified by BGF and Gresham House, who gave step-change investment with an extremely ambitious target of doubling turnover by 2025. The M&A market at the time had dipped, so the investors planned for an exit in the future following further growth and deliver the anticipated high return on their investment.

As the business continued to scale, the founders recognised that the upcoming phase of growth and event delivery would require a proven CEO with the leadership and experience necessary to guarantee their business would continue to flourish. Therefore, co-founder Mark decided it was the right time to transition away from the CEO role to allow Bella & Duke to meet their financial and market penetration goals, though remains deeply involved with the business in his role as Co-Founder.

Search Overview

Having a prior relationship with Bella & Duke’s Head of Talent and Chairman as well as private equity investors BGF and Gresham House, Drayton came with a solid understand of Bella & Duke’s situation and what was needed from the incoming CEO. Drayton also understood the market that Bella & Duke were so successful in, having partnered with other industry leaders such as Butternut Box and MPM Products on separate occasions.

Drayton was excited to work with a business so primed for success, deeply impressed by its purpose-driven, authentic culture that really cared about the products it was producing and the pets who were at the heart of everything Bella & Duke do. With many of the team with their own pet companions, Drayton were completely onboard with the mission and values that had led to its success

The 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 assignment:

About the Candidate

James Sturrock

Highly recommended within industry circles, James had been on Drayton’s radar for a while. He was extremely receptive to hearing about the role, developing a genuine fascination with Bella & Duke that carried through the assessment stage of the process and is ongoing now.

Importantly, he ticked off the key candidate criteria:

James is praised by previous colleagues as methodological and thorough as well as a core asset to a fun and communicative culture. He has delivered periods of growth and transformation to businesses through his ability to make tough decisions, communicating with colleagues and genuine understanding of the DTC relationship from his marketing background. His time at Moonpig prepared him well to handle digital-first, disruptor businesses, though his bricks and mortar retail positions such as Group CEO of Tapi Carpets have given him a range of experiences to draw from and drive Bella & Duke forward.

James’ outstanding competency assessment, his deep, ambitious enthusiasm about the role, his incredibly valuable consumer experience and his psychometric profile earned him the position as CEO of Bella & Duke, where he continues to impress.

Results Delivered

At the helm of a company, the CEO has the power to steer a business in a way that is unique to this role. 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 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. Business performance Drayton thoroughly enjoyed the relationship formed with Bella & Duke 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.