Lily’s CEO David Milner

Lily’s Kitchen has ramped up its international expansion by agreeing a deal with Germany’s biggest pet food retailer Fressnapf.

This new agreement will see Lily’s Kitchen products will be available in over 400 new stores as well as online in Germany and underpins its efforts to double its international reach this year.

The natural pet food brand announced plans to double its international business earlier this year and has achieved that goal since April 2019, making its products now available in over 2,000 locations, both in stores and online throughout Europe.

Lily’s Kitchen has signed new retail and distribution deals with retailers and distributors in 15 more countries in the last six months.

It has more than doubled the countries it sells into from 12 to 27 in 2019, including expansion into the Asian territories of Hong Kong, Singapore and Japan.

CEO David Milner commented: “It is an exciting time at Lily’s Kitchen as we accelerate international growth, especially in European markets where more and more consumers are looking for healthier alternatives to mainstream pet food.

“Fressnapf understand the value and benefit their customers get from feeding their pets proper food made with natural ingredients, and this new partnership helps put us on the path to achieving our international ambitions.”

In an exclusive interview earlier this year, Milner told The Grocer: ““No one else is doing humanisation of petfood as well as we are and we know there is huge opportunity to push harder internationally.”

“We’re taking a concept to some parts of the world where premiumisation is just starting - there’s a huge opportunity here and we’ve got off to a cracking start.”

Lily’s has retained its existing branding across the globe and continues to sell its goods in English-language packaging, with British names such as lamb hotpot and Sunday lunch.