Tiny package reaps big award
Tuesday, June 28, 2011
by SUSAN MANN
Small pets can chow down on hay in a nice neat cardboard package and even eat the box itself thanks to an invention by the Trauttmansdorff family.
The idea grew out of the need to sell surplus hay, says Fritz Trauttmansdorff, who has a horse hay business with his wife, Gise, near Jerseyville west of Toronto called Dunlea Farms Ltd. Their 28-year-old son, Michael, developed the pet hay business.
Michael, who is currently in Europe drumming up distributors for the product called Tidy Feeder, has an engineering degree from the University of Toronto and a new product design master’s degree from the Delft University of Technology in The Netherlands.
After Michael came back from school in The Netherlands, “we came up with the idea and he wanted to develop it,” Fritz explains.
Dunlea Farms Ltd. pet hay business was among the 10 regional winners of the Premier’s Award for Agri-Food Innovation Excellence presented with their prize Friday. During a ceremony in Ancaster, the winners were each given $5,000.
The idea was developed a year ago when the Trauttmansdorffs were looking to do something with surplus hay. After doing market research, they learned what was required for the pet hay business – extremely high quality hay and very neat packaging.
“Our customers actually directed us towards the idea of using edible boxes to use as feeders,” Fritz says, noting the cardboard box is made of recycled paper with edible inks. The box can be hung in the pet’s cage. After tearing off a window, the animal can start eating out of the box.
The boxes of pet hay come in two sizes – 12 or 24 ounces and is suitable for animals like rabbits, guinea pigs and hamsters. The packaging design recently won the Canadian Packaging Association’s best package prize for 2010.
About the premier’s award, Fritz says they were pleased, honoured and surprised they won. “There’s always lots of stiff competition,” he says. “Others have a lot of good ideas too.”
Fritz says they plan to continue building the pet hay business. They were recently accepted as suppliers for Pet Valu, the largest pet product chain in Canada. They’re also working with American suppliers to get into the market there and they’re already shipping product to Singapore.
“It’s very well accepted in the market,” Fritz says.
The other winners on Friday were: Springridge Farm of Milton, Hamilton Eat Local of Hamilton, Orchard Park Growers Ltd. of St. Cartharines, Sun-Ray Orchards Inc. of Beamsville, Sweet & Sticky Inc. of Niagara Falls, Moyer and Rowe Family Farms of Vineland, Wellington and Lambton counties, Kent Kreek Berries of Simcoe, Fresh Sprout International Limited of Mississauga, and Duizer Farms of Burford.
Awards for the northern region were presented during a separate ceremony Monday in Sturgeon Falls. Winners there were: Nipissing Hay Producers Association, West Nipissing East Sudbury Agricultural Support Projects Inc., Golden Beef Producers Co-operatives of Val Gagne, Meeker’s Aquaculture of Evansville in the Manitoulin District and Boreal Birch Syrup of Thunder Bay.
This year 55 regional award winners from across Ontario will be recognized at local events. Since 2007, more than 900 applications have been submitted for the award. BF