Carnivore Kelly’s – a cut above the rest for the needs of your pet
A LOCAL business selling raw food for dogs and cats is on a mission to provide the best quality pet food for our furry friends.
Carnivore Kelly’s, located on Station Road Business Park in Clondalkin, is owned and operated by the Kelly family, which has over 50 years of experience as Irish butchers.
In operation since December 2014, Carnivore Kelly’s passionately believe that dogs and cats are carnivores and should be fed food that their bodies were designed to eat – raw meat, bone, and organ to provide the best nutrition for them.
“People really care now what is going into their dog or cats’ system,” said Hannah Kelly, whose stepdad owns the store. “If you go back years and years ago, wild dogs ate meat – they didn’t go to a shop and get dry food.
“The benefits are that the animals have a shiny coat, they have less toilet waste, they have white teeth because there is bone in the product and the bone cleans in between their teeth.
In recent years, more and more pet owners have become educated and aware of the nutritional benefits of raw pet food and have been swapping out dry food for a more natural option.
“When we first opened in 2014, it was a totally new thing and people would really only feed dry food to their pets.
“When I did market research before opening the store, I found that Irish people really have a thing about reading ingredients on the back of food and knowing what is in stuff.
“I also found that people are definitely considering their pets less as pets and more as family members now and they want the best for them and care about what they are feeding them,” Hannah explained.
Looking to grow the business, the company sought financial support from LEO South Dublin, something which Hannah says was hugely beneficial.
“We got a grant that went towards our website development. LEO paid half for a new website to be created and for our painting and signs in our garden area,” said Hannah.
“We actually won an award with them as well – the best start-up business of 2019.”
Speaking about the effect the pandemic had on the store, Hannah explained that, unlike most businesses, the company actually saw a growth in sales online during lockdown periods.
“We are deemed as essential so thankfully we didn’t have to close,” said Hannah. “Our main business is online deliveries – we deliver all over Ireland, and more people were actually at home with their dogs, so we were fine, which was brilliant.”
As well as having a stand-alone shop in Clondalkin, all of the products can be bought on the website and delivered across Ireland.
“I’ve yet to have somebody come back to me and say the dog didn’t like the food, and after seven years that’s a pretty good sign,” Hannah added.
For more information about the products or to order you can check out the website www.carnivorekellys.ie or on Instagram at instagram.com/carnivorekellys.
