Our Story
Hello! Well, where do we start? What a journey we've taken to get here, read on and I'll try to explain all ...
Sarah Patten was a hugely successful, (highly sought after), dog groomer based in Stoke-on-Trent. She was the original dog whisperer, also a bit like a female version of Crocodile Dundee - but for dogs. She was known by friends as 'Sarah Scissor Hands'. A dog groomer for 19 years, running her own high-tech dog grooming parlour 'Classy Canines' for approx 13 of those years. She was grooming 12 dogs per day, 6 days a week, bookings were 10 weeks in advance and Sarah's City & Guilds qualified grooming skills are still admired to this day by her old customers. However, as time passed by hairs started to get on her chest - including the dog hairs:) and Sarah's fingers started to bend from holding the clippers & scissors, meaning she'd never play the flute again, so she knew it was time to move on! (Stay with me, as this is where it starts to get interesting. I'll soon tell you all about the birth of Doggie Fashions and Wilson's Pet Bakery.)
Now for a little bit about my history. I (Kerry Wilson) was once a professional entertainer for my sins. I was a comedy & vocal impressionist, in-fact some of you with an excellent memory may remember me from some of my TV performances? Way back in the 90's I performed on TV shows such as .... ‘Who Do You Do?’, ‘Talking Telephone Numbers’, ‘The Big Stage’, ‘Summertime Special’ and ‘The Jonathan Ross Big Big Talent Show’. It all started at the tender age of eighteen when I won ‘Opportunity Knocks’, hosted by the late (great) Bob Monkhouse, only to be beaten on my second week by a nine year old girl singing Ben to a stuffed hamster, a highlight of my life! Talking of stuffed hamsters, you'll be glad to know that my Cilla Black wig (that looks like a cat has been sucking it) is now safely hidden away but may sometimes put in an appearance at Halloween to scare away the trick or treaters. In-fact, I named my little dog 'Cilla' after my Cilla Black wig. However, Cilla 'the shaved Pomeranian' (it's important to keep your pom tidy), is much prettier than the wig!
It was in 2002 when things really started to change for Sarah and I, we joined forces and launched a new business together called ‘Doggie Fashions Ltd’. This was one of the very first dog boutiques in the UK and is still going from strength to strength – which is no mean feat in this day & age!
Doggie Fashions was and still is the perfect business for Sarah, as she has such a vast knowledge of dogs (apparently she lived in the woods during school holidays and was brought up by a Great Dane who she loved dearly). Since 2002 my knowledge and understanding of all dogs is now at the stage where I could score highly on Mastermind! The reason I joined Sarah as a Director of Doggie Fashions was I really wanted to leave the entertainment industry. I’d been gigging for a long time on the cabaret & club circuit, which is a hard career path for even the Krankies (some old friends of mine). It took a long time for me to cut down on the bookings with agents but during that time I started to retrain in multi-media to allow me to help with work at Doggie Fashions such as the website and any other graphics artwork needed for adverts, mail shots etc... I absolutely loved working on multi-media projects and I actually qualified as a video editor along with graphic design, desktop publishing and inter-active CD Rom authoring. Yes that’s right I’d turned into a GEEK!
Anyway, (in-case you’re losing the will to live I’ll speed it along), with the two of us at the helm, Doggie Fashions grew to become a very successful luxury dog boutique and our beautiful store is now located at Trentham Gardens, Staffordshire. I was eventually able to give up the glamorous world of entertainment completely. You’ll be glad to know I’ve never missed the late nights, long distance travelling, toilets for changing rooms and being away from friends and family for all special occasions. Sarah worked hard at the two businesses (Classy Canines & Doggie Fashions) for 5 years then eventually after a total of 19 years of dog grooming was able to put her scissors & slicker brushes down! That meant we were both able to dedicate all of our time to Doggie Fashions.
When Doggie Fashions first relocated to Trentham Gardens (aka Trentham Estate) in 2006, we used to sell some bakery treats which we imported from the USA. We realised our customers wanted something different and these treats sold well. Sadly when the dreaded recession hit, the pound crashed against the dollar and it meant importing the treats became far too expensive and incredibly difficult. Not to be deterred I decided to try and make my own baked dog treats! After doing endless research into recipes for dog treats, lots of baking practice, getting advice on the safety of ingredients for the dogs and seeking full guidance from Trading Standards with regards to the strict regulations on running a food manufacturing business - I finally created my TOP-SECRET recipe and in 2008 Wilson's Pet Bakery began!
Sarah started to sell the treats in our shop Doggie Fashions and the response from the customers was incredible. The dogs LOVED the treats and so did our own dogs - especially Cilla who became our 'Chief Taster'. Then one day whilst decorating the cakes one day I had a Eureka moment and came up with the dog safe ‘box of chocs for dogs’ idea, it was all very exciting and again they were an instant hit! With this tremendous encouragement I went on to train in cake decorating, bakery and advanced chocolate skills to help to develop Wilson’s Pet Bakery. Late 2010 saw us taking a big plunge and we had the magical little bakery purpose built, now we could bake around the clock in a fabulous working area, super-slick and super-clean (because I've got OCD with regards to cleaning - I'm never without a handsized bottle anti-bacterial hand gel when I go out).
Family and friends would agree Sarah and I are workaholics and we’ve spent every waking moment nurturing the bakery, whilst running Doggie Fashions too. We managed to grow Wilson’s Pet Bakery very quickly as we targeted the pet trade and aimed to supply wholesale to Pet Shops throughout the UK - we even supplied pet stores in Europe too.
Since the bakery began we opened approximately 110 pet shop customers (trade accounts), some of who have been ordering from us on a very frequent basis. (Hundreds of treats per order, per customer, per week – that’s a lot of dogs all over the country who’ve enjoyed our treats.) Now that may sound wonderful but it has been extremely hard work, I was getting quite poorly and Sarah was totally exhausted too. You see, our handmade, hand decorated treats are incredibly labour intensive, plus I’m a perfectionist so every treat has to be spot on! The term 'busy fools' comes to mind, making delicate, luxury, handmade treats in vast quantities at a wholesale prices wasn't the direction we should have been going in. Anyway, eventually we had a good long think about the very important ‘work-life balance’ and we made some drastic changes! There’s a lot more to life than just work and we don’t want to miss it, although we'll never let standards slip or stop working hard. Our decision was that we must concentrate on working directly with you (the end user) & your dogs'. We want to give our full attention, time, energy and LOVE into making our treats for YOUR dogs. Everything freshly baked to order - DIRECT from us (the manufacturers) to YOU!
Back in my entertainment days, if someone had told me I would be baking cakes for dogs in the future I’d have thought they were completely mad! Anyone could have understood Sarah running a business like this due to her already being in the pet trade. However, you never where your life path will take you. We both love dogs dearly and we absolutely love every minute of our work. (I actually ran away from home for a whole afternoon when I was ten because my parents wouldn’t let me have a dog, they gave in eventually. Also, when I was eight I sent a letter to the neighbours asking if we could buy their two dogs off them, I tried for forge my mums signature but the non-joined up handwriting in crayon didn’t convince them to part with their collies.) Basically, what I’m trying to say is please rest assured it’s not all about business for us, we genuinely understand how much you love your dogs, just like we adore ours. Giving your dog an extra-special little treat now and again is a great way of showing them how much they’re totally loved. Making them happy makes you feel happy too!
We’re constantly perfecting the recipes and always striving for improvement - to make absolutely sure our treats are the VERY best around for your very important pet! Sarah and I, believe in being totally honest and providing you with the best service that we possibly can. We’ve genuinely got thousands of very happy customers nationwide and we hope you will become another one - if you're not already.
We’ve turned a new page at Wilson’s Pet Bakery and the story is to be continued………. We hope you’ll support, trust and stay with us on the next chapters of our journey? Most of all - we hope your dogs' enjoy every single last crumb of our luxury treats!!! K x
