Hay Yorkshire! County’s nutritious grass goes global as pet owners from Beijing to Berlin buy Burgess Pet Care brand

Rabbits around the world are feasting on Yorkshire hay, cut, dried, and lovingly exported by one of the county’s longest standing independent family businesses. 

Burgess Pet Care’s latest international listing on Zooplus, a key German distribution platform, has provided a significant boost for the brand’s European profile. These additional listings further add to the thousands of small animals Burgess feeds across the globe with its Excel brand. 

Rabbits and guinea pigs need to eat their own body size in hay daily as part of a recommended diet, and Burgess’ high quality feeding hay range sourced from specialist local farmers is meeting appetites across four continents.  

“Yorkshire is known for its rolling countryside, typified by healthy green fields stretching towards big blue skies as far as the eye can see. It is a vision that embodies goodness and nutrition which is driving our international growth,” said Annabel Coleman, Excel Brand Manager at Burgess Pet Care, one of the country’s leading pet food manufacturers.  

“It’s a great testament to our incredible farmers we work with that we are seeing so much demand for these products, and we’re delighted to offer owners in both the UK and around the world the chance to provide their small animals with a diet rich in the finest Yorkshire hay. To respond to demand, we are currently developing larger pack size options and tasty herb additions to add to our hay ranges, UK and International, in response to the increased demand.” 

Burgess, which can be traced back to the 17th century as a family milling business and now has almost 60 years of pet food production to its name, is proud of its long standing partnerships with the veterinary community and animal welfare charities, with nutrition and wellness at the heart of their company ethos.  

Based at Thornton le Dale in North Yorkshire - with significant operations in Pollington, East Yorkshire - the Burgess team works closely with charities such as RSPCA and Blue  Cross, and is the driving force behind national campaigns such as both Rabbit and Guinea Pig Awareness Week, which seek to improve the health and welfare of these special animals – often through increased consumption of hay.  

Ranges are now stocked in countries as far afield as China, Germany, Kuwait, Malaysia, Malta, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand and United Arab Emirates, in addition to the UK and Ireland. 

The international growth is all the more impressive in a post-Brexit trading environment which has added increased complexity at the EU border. The business has a strong vision to continue this trajectory with further global expansion plans in the pipeline.