Though a big animal lover, it was never founder Jo White’s original intention to set up a pet care business. However, circumstances intervened when she took a local authority position in project management and realised that she couldn’t find anyone to look after her German Shepherd Meghan. Spotting a gap in the market, she set up We Love Pets and the rest, as they say, is history.
Jo recalls: “It all happened so quickly. My boss from my old job built my website and I was getting enquiries before I’d even fully left my job, so I knew I’d identified a need that my business could satisfy.”
Time to franchise
In 2009/10, with growth for the business firmly on her mind, she found herself at an EWIF (Encouraging Women in Franchising), meeting in London, where she met other women in franchising who gave her the confidence to move forwards with franchising the business.
In 2011 Jo sold her first pilot franchise to one of her employees, selling a second to her sister soon after.
New beginnings
Jo ran We Love Pets single-handedly from 2008 until 2015. In 2015, however, animal expert Ryan White came to give franchisees extra training on how to handle birds and a new chapter in the company began, with him joining as managing director in 2016 and the pair subsequently marrying in 2017. They now have two children.
From a handful of franchises in 2015 the company now boasts 120. As Jo put it: “Our growth has been huge, and I must thank Ryan for his help in achieving this. Even Covid couldn’t stop us; we went into the pandemic turning over £200k a year and came out the other side turning over £350k, so I’m super proud of everything we have achieved.”
Achievements
Unsurprisingly, We Love Pets has been successful on the recognition stage too, winning ‘Emerging Franchisor of the Year’ at the BFA awards in June 2018 and being a finalist in the prestigious ‘Established Franchisor of the Year’ category in November 2024, alongside brands such as McDonald’s and Dyno Rod.
In January 2025 it came 33rd in the Elite Top 100 guide of franchises in the UK, its highest position to date and has received multiple Five Star Satisfaction awards from the WorkBuzz Best Franchise Awards over the years.
The company has also been awarded ‘Ethical’ Status by the Good Shopping Guide in recognition of their ethical practices e.g. no pack walking.
So what’s the formula for success?
While Jo and Ryanattribute the growth of the business to a few things: “Complete transparency is the single most important thing for us when we are talking to a prospective franchisee” says Ryan. He continues: “We look for people with a desire to build a business who have commitment and ambition and in return, we offer them a business model that, if they follow it, has very little chance of failing.”
The couple invest heavily in staffing and infrastructure, having had four new websites in six years and a large head office team to support their growing franchise network.
Business challenges
Yet it hasn’t entirely been plain sailing. “The challenges we have had have mostly been with macro factors such as changes in Government and local red tape, but we manage these by planning ahead, engaging with our network and working with external partners, such as the PCFA (Pet Care Franchise Association),” said Jo.
Challenges are there to be overcome and We Love Pets continues to demonstrate how it can be done.
