Award-winning doggy day care business, Bruce’s, has appointed Ben Mann as Managing Director. Following five years in the business – culminating in leading operations for the company – Mann steps into the former role of Founder, Bruce Casalis.
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Mann’s career has predominantly been in the events & hospitality sector, both in his native Australia and here in the UK. From having studied music management at Victoria University, Mann went on to run live events and catering in Sweden, before turning to destination catering for locations such as Buckingham Palace.
Swapping tea parties for the Royals to tea parties for our four-legged friends might seem like some step change, but for Mann the roles are more similar than they appear on the surface.
“Both sides of my career revolved around people. You start to build themes for catering, from seasonal ingredients and new menus through to wine pairings. For doggy day care; walking, playing and caring for dogs is one thing, but how do you enrich the overall experience for staff and dogs alike?”
“Throwing an afternoon tea party for dogs might seem cute and lovely, and is certainly more interesting for our staff, but how do we make it engaging for the dog? Can we hide items around the centre for them to sniff out, create food and drinks that are stimulating? Can the dogs chase and run and play? It’s ultimately about thinking about what everything you do means for the customer and that’s largely our dogs.”
“I believe we do enrichment better than anyone else in the world and my plan for the future is to be the best dog hospitality provider in the world. The Disneyland for dogs if you will”.
Bruce’s Doggy Day Care, which Casalis started in 2008, now has nine centres and had sales of £6 million in 2021, up from £2.4 million the year previously. It employs 250 staff and hopes to achieve sales of £10 million for 2022.
The first Bruce’s site – a five-acre day care centre – opened in Cobham, Surrey, in 2009. Fast forward to 2022 and Bruce’s Solihull, which opened in December, is the business’s ninth site and first outside of the South & South East of England.
In another win for the brand, Bruce’s claimed the prestigious Best Business of the Year (more than 50 employees) award at the SME Awards last month.
Bruce’s now cares for more than 800 dogs across its nine locations and sets itself apart from the competition by creating a fulfilling experience for dogs, their lives and their owners’ lives. By providing a more fulfilled owner/dog relationship the result is happier people and happier dogs. That’s why Bruce’s strives to give every dog the best day ever, every day at day care.
For more information on Bruce’s, its approach to day care, training, and grooming, please visit www.bruces.dog