I’m a sucker for good packaging. There, I said it.
I know that you shouldn’t judge a book by its cover. I know that good branding doesn’t necessarily mean a good product.
At first glance, Paw-cipes looked to be one of those brands that might be more visually appealing than actually effective. Its clean, modern, and minimalist design is a huge contrast compared to the usual loud and busy pet food products I see in stores.
Learning more about the homegrown business, though, I think they might just be more than a pretty face after all.
The brainchild of marketing experts
Sharing more about the business to Vulcan Post is Tan Min Chuen, the 28-year-old founder of Paw-cipes.
While Min Chuen got his start in creative design before moving into brand development, he actually graduated from Taylor’s University with a Bachelor of Science (Honours) in Architecture.
But all his career choices have been integral to starting Paw-cipes. After all, it was a dream of his to start a pet food business, having noticed how few good and healthy diet options there were for his own pets locally.
“My partner and I loved the idea of creating something truly high-quality and accessible here in Malaysia,” he elaborated.
With that in mind, Min Chuen dipped his toes into ecommerce after graduation, specifically in pet supplies for the US market. Unfortunately, some payment processor hurdles kept that from taking off.
So, he decided to team up with his partner to offer freelance services including brand design, product design, and graphic design. That ended up growing into a marketing and design agency with a team of five in 2021, working with clients from the US, EU, China, and Singapore.
“That experience taught me so much about branding, marketing, and supply chains, which came in handy when we launched Paw-cipes,” Min Chuen said.
He and his partner juggled their full-time jobs at first, using their background in design and branding to gradually build Paw-cipes on the side.
Today, though, they’ve gone all-in with Paw-cipes.
“Once we saw its potential, especially how much local pet owners craved fresh, high-quality options, we closed our design agency and invested the capital we’d saved straight into Paw-cipes,” Min Chuen proudly said.
“It was definitely a leap of faith, but I believed, and still do, that this is something really special.”
By pet owners, for pet owners
As Min Chuen shared, the reason for starting Paw-cipes was for their own furbabies. According to the founders, they kept hitting dead ends looking for nutritious pet food locally.
To create something different from the market, the team dove into R&D.
“Our initial R&D involved a whole lot of research, recipe trials, and consultations with industry contacts,” Min Chuen explained.
Through that, they eventually landed on their current range of products, which include canned foods and freeze-dried meats, and wet licking treats.
“We do smaller, more frequent production runs to keep everything fresh, this also helps us control quality more closely,” Min Chuen assured “Our meat source is of 100% human grade quality, and the products are manufactured in a dust-free, professional facility.”
The products are manufactured in China, where the relevant technology and industries are much more mature, he shared.
For now, Paw-cipes’ products are sold on ecommerce platforms including Shopee, Lazada, and TikTok. This isn’t just because it’s easier and cheaper to list online, but because of shelf-life too.
Paw-cipes’ focuses on preservative-free products, so online channels allow for a better turnaround time.
“Since our freeze-dried range is more sensitive to shelf life, online is the best avenue for now,” Min Cheun added. “We are, however, working on rolling out some wet food/wet treat offerings that have a longer shelf life, so those will gradually appear in retail stores.”
Going up against the big dogs (and smaller ones, too)
The pet food industry is rather large, though, with lots of notable and well-established names in the market. Going up against those options hasn’t been easy, understandably.
Yet, the Paw-cipes team believes in their niche, where authenticity and quality is king. Keeping customers close is a big deal for them, and that involves listening to feedback and engaging with them via social media.
Min Chuen added, “Word of mouth has been huge for us. We’re also building a community around Paw-cipes, so people feel they’re part of something, not just buying a random product off the shelf.”
But it’s not only the big businesses that they have to worry about. In recent years, there’s actually been quite a number of local pet food brands that have cropped up, such as Notti Pet Food and StreetPaw.
For Paw-cipes, they understand that the barrier to entry for their industry isn’t super high. But rather than compete with others by just pushing for scale or sales volume, the team wants to focus on crafting a truly top-notch product.
“We produce in small batches to ensure maximum freshness and consistency, instead of chasing huge output. That quality-first approach is what sets us apart,” Min Chuen determined.
Despite going head-to-head with so many competitors, from established pet industry giants to up-and-comers, Paw-cipes seems to have done quite well for themselves. For one, Min Chuen claimed that the brand has become one of the best-selling pet care brands on Shopee.
“It hasn’t been easy, but staying laser-focused on quality and engaging with customers has really helped us stand out,” he said.
Beyond expanding their product line, the team wants to shape healthier pet diets, raise awareness about nutrition, and expand their reach both locally and beyond.
Barking up the right tree
Ambitions and missions are one thing, but real results are another.
For Paw-cipes, the results seem to speak for themselves, though. Min Chuen shared with Vulcan Post that the brand is on track to achieve more than RM2 million in annual revenue.
“Paw-cipes started off bootstrapped, literally just putting in whatever funds we had from our previous agency, and continuously reinvesting any profits right back into the brand,” the founder expressed.
Turns out, pretty packaging and aesthetic branding are just a few of the many ingredients to the recipe behind Paw-cipes.
Featured Image Credit: Paw-cipes
