The reusable bottle brand is venturing into the $3.3 billion pet products industry in a move it says is smart for business – and good for the planet.
Key Takeaways
- Frank Green has launched a pet collection, tapping into the $3.3 billion Australia pet and pet supplies retail industry
- Globally, the pet care industry is worth US$261 billion – and is expected to reach US$350 billion by 2027.
When Benjamin Young was growing up in the 90s, he would fish down by the river near his parents’ property. And every time it would rain, the river would be filled with thousands of plastic water bottles and rubbish from the local area fill the gorge and travel down on to the nearby beach.
“I was like a little petulant child, walking through the sea of plastic up to me knees, kicking it thinking, ‘what’s this here for? It’s on my beach!’,” Young tells Forbes Australia.
These moments would be the driving force behind Young’s company, Frank Green, which he founded more than 20 years later in 2014. Frank Green is a reusable bottle and cup brand, that sells around 4 million products each year in more than 45 countries. The company experienced triple-digit growth in FY2021, and off the back of that success is now launching a pet collection.
“No Olympian ever who won a gold medal said they weren’t desperate to win it.”
– Benjamin Young, CEO and founder of Frank Green
“Pets are just the most amazing thing in life – you’d do anything for them,” he says. “My best mate Charlie, I love him more than anything in the world. I wanted to do this to show him how much I love him, too.”
The new pet collection, which launches on October 4th, is made from biodegradable and recycled material, recycled co-polymer and compostable corn starch. The range includes AirTags, collars, leads, silicone and steel pet bowls, pet treat holders, squeaky toys and bandanas and even safety lights.
But the inspiration for both human and pet products remained the same. Young wanted to create beautiful products, that people actually wanted to use and that felt functional.
“I genuinely care about the environment, and I couldn’t find a reusable coffee cup or water bottle that I liked – so I made one. That’s what it came to with pets as well.”
It’s a business-savvy move, too. Australia has one of the highest pet ownership rates in the world, with 61% of households owning pets. That makes the pets and pet supplies industry hefty – it’s worth $3.3 billion this year, and is expected to increase by another 4.3%.
In fact, the pet industry has increased faster than the overall economy, outperforming the consumer goods and services sector overall.
Globally, the pet care industry is worth US$261 billion – and is expected to reach US$350 billion by 2027. Pet food and pet supplies are now the second and third biggest e-commerce consumer product categories – above skincare, coffee and weight control.
Young knows he’s tapping into a growing trend – and it isn’t his first time doing it. In fact, just prior to the pet collection, Frank Green launched a huge 2-litre water bottle, tapping into the emotional support water bottle TikTok trend (#emotionalsupportwaterbottle has 66 million views on the app).
That product increased the size of the company’s drinkware business by 15%, Young says.
“Frank Green is a performance-driven business, but it’s purpose first,” Young says. “The market is big, but there are a lot of players in it. It was about doing it, and doing it two standard deviations differently to someone else.”
This ethos is what Young, who built Frank Green while working at a corporate job, lives by. He believes if you’re going to create something, you need to be two standard deviations away in terms of what your competitors are offering.
“That’s why it took three years working night and day to get this product right – I even slept next to injection moulding machines,” he says.
“I think it’s really important to be committed and even desperate in your plight to do great things,” he says. “No Olympian ever who won a gold medal said they weren’t desperate to win it.”