Pets in the City doggy daycare owner Layamon Bakewell wants to expand the franchise business in Auckland. Photo / Sylvie Whinray
Doggy daycare and luxury pet hotels, blingy accessories and handmade treats. Kiwis are increasingly willing to spend thousands of dollars on the four-legged members of their families, part of a $1.8 billion booming pet industry. Jane Phare looks at what’s on offer.
Auckland businessman Layamon Bakewell is well aware the besotted owners of the canine clients at his doggy daycares expect his staff to love their pooches as much as they do.
And love them they do. They’re trained to not only handle all sizes and breeds of dogs with skill and affection, but to reassure the anxious “parents” their pets are having a marvellous time.
Bakewell is chief executive of Pets in the City, a franchise operation for doggy daycares and “hotels”, and the owner-operator of the Wairau Park and Silverdale branches with his wife Laura. A third Pets in the City, in Mt Wellington, is run by franchise operators.
It’s the franchise business the Bakewells plan to grow, having left their careers in the Royal New Zealand Navy four years ago. People might laugh at this notion, Layamon Bakewell says, but he reckons there’s room for 25 Pets in the City branches in Auckland. He might be right. Auckland Council says there are 135,000 “known” dogs in the region, and another group of unregistered dogs, estimated to be 40,000 to 70,000. And there are plenty of owners willing to spoil them.
With a dog population of 851,000 dogs in New Zealand in mind, Bakewell has ambitious plans to eventually expand to other cities. He’s looking for areas with a decent dog population and devoted owners, close to main routes and motorways, and a large warehouse-type building with some outdoor romping space.
Since he and Laura took over Silverdale as franchise operators in 2020, and then bought the Wairau Park branch and the franchise operation in 2022, Bakewell has been studying hard. He’s used the franchising of Pets in the City as his capstone project to complete an MBA with the Auckland University of Technology (AUT). He’s spent the past 18 months rewriting the franchise guidelines and revising how the doggy daycares and hotels should be built, learning from the experience of Silverdale and Wairau.
Bakewell estimates an ideal fit-out will cost about $700,000 for what will be a turnkey franchise. Bakewell will source the ideal site, complete the fit-out and hand over the keys to the franchise owner, who will cover the cost and take over the lease. He says the return on investment achieved by the three Pets in the City operations indicates “considerable potential income” for capable owner-operators.
Scaling up to 150 dogs or more a day is the key, Bakewell says. Small-time operators run themselves ragged trying to do everything, working 70-80-hour weeks and rarely making money, Bakewell says.
“They’re too small, they can’t afford to take on any help,” he says. “At scale you can afford to have a big-enough team so that it becomes a lifestyle, not a life sentence.”
More than a third of Kiwi households have at least one dog, according to Companion Animals New Zealand’s 2020 report. Of those, 78 per cent considered their dogs to be members of the family, and 65 per cent of households said they had a dog for love, companionship and affection.
Gone are the days when owners would leave their dog at a boarding kennel, often without even giving it an inspection. Dogs are more likely to be considered part of the family these days, with daycare owners saying owners will often spend more on their pets and dish out more love than they do to their children.
Cashing in on that devotion are multiple daycare facilities and pet hotels where owners drop off their darlings on their way to work, if they’re going out for the night, or away on holiday.
Daycares cost about $60 a day for a casual rate (although most daycares offer five and 10-day concession rates), and more for an overnight or lengthy stay.
Some owners spend up to $2000 a month on fees, accessories and grooming, with an average spend of $500-$700 a month. Intensive training can cost thousands of dollars extra.
Many daycare clients are couples who have decided not to have children, or are leaving parenthood until later, Bakewell says. Their dog, or dogs in some cases, becomes a replacement. Empty-nesters are another group who use doggy daycares — older couples who get a dog, but still want to go away on e-bike trips and Rhine cruises.
Bakewell says busy, time-short families need to have daycares within easy driving distance. His clients include businesspeople who travel frequently, flight attendants and nurses who work shifts.
“What people need is a facility right in the heart of the city that can essentially be a home away from home.”
The increased humanisation of pets, and the language used to sell the dream to prospective clients, means expectations rise and so do the amounts dog owners are prepared to spend.
Browse through the scores of doggy daycare and pet hotel facilities on offer and you’ll rarely come across the word “kennel”, pretty much banished from the pet vernacular these days. Instead, the names are reassuringly sweet: K9 Heaven, Pets and Pats, Barkley Manor, Doggy Nose Best, The Dog Club, Woodlands Dog Retreat and All Seasons Pet Resort.
Dog owners are called “parents” who are thrilled to know their pets will get “cosy blankets”, enjoy play areas, filtered water, and a doggy treat on their pillow during “sleepovers”. Most daycares will upload cute photos of the dogs at play on social media each day so “parents” can check in.
Pets in the City dogs get daily report cards and one lucky pooch is awarded a Player of the Day certificate. Staff play classical music for a two-hour “quiet time” in the middle of the day so that dogs, exhausted from a morning of play, can rest.
Upstairs in the hotel, tempered-glass walls in the cubicles give dogs a view over the indoor play park below. Lights out is at 9pm — a doggy treat is left on the pillow — and a staff member sleeps on the premises overnight.
In pet hotels “guests” have check-in and check-out times and the sleeping quarters are called “apartments”. Much like airlines eyeing one another’s premium cabins to find out who’s offering what, pet daycares, too, try to go one paw further.
Critter Creek in Kumeū, described as “a country retreat”, offers a range of options from “motel kennels” to “individual hotel suites”. Dogs can have a human bed and a pillow, fans and heaters, and a scenic balcony view. “Perfect for pets who enjoy the finer things in life,” the website says.
Owners will fork out for grooming — up to $110 for a large dog — doggy massage, toys, designer collars and leashes (Kiwi designer Karen Walker released a Runaway range), nail polish, pet perfume, shampoo, conditioner and soap, dog walkers and sitters, raised feeding bowls, harnesses for the car, dog slings and raised beds — that is for dogs not allowed to sleep on a human bed. Coats and outfits for dogs are another growth industry with one site selling small alpaca jumpers for $118. And then there’s the Apple AirTags in case the pups run off.
Bakeries like Pupcakes NZ, The Barkuterie Box, Barking Good Bakes and Amy’s Secret Kitchen offer a range of goods — made with “natural” human-grade ingredients — for pampered pooches. The Barkuterie Box offers doggy doughnuts like carob and peanut butter, “chocolate” box selections, doggy chews, birthday cakes and celebration bonbons. Dog owners can order “pawricious” pupcakes and birthday cakes, doggy Easter eggs and icecream, and treats like Mutt Butter pouches (peanut butter for dogs). A doggy birthday cake from Pupcakes NZ costs $59.99 and a six-pack of pupcakes, topped with cream cheese icing and a doggy treat, is $23.99.
Dog owners are also becoming increasingly fussy about what their pets eat, forking out for upmarket possum dog rolls rather than cheaper brands, and buying expensive treats. The pet-food market in New Zealand has more than doubled in the past 10 years and is now $289 million a year. Dog treats, a category that didn’t even rate a decade ago, makes up 21 per cent of that figure.
Scottish multimillionaire Tony Quinn made much of his fortune from dog food, a business he started in New Zealand in 1984. Quinn, who now lives on the Gold Coast, sold VIP (Very Important Pets) in 2015 for $410 million to an international conglomerate. He reinvested 10 per cent of the purchase price in VIP, which sold two years later for $1 billion. Since then he’s spent more than $65m on building or buying motorsport race courses — Highlands in Cromwell, Hampton Downs in north Waikato, Taupō International Motorsport Park and Queensland Raceway on the Gold Coast.
Tauranga businessman Peter Mitchell founded Ziwi, an air-dried dog and cat food company in 2002, which he sold in 2021 to FountainVest Partners, a Hong Kong-based Chinese venture capital firm, reputedly for more than $1b.
Relatively new to the doggy daycare industry is former advertising executive Simon Pengelly who bought Grey Lynn-based Barkley Manor in October. The upmarket doggy daycare was the subject of a reality TV series of the same name, narrated by Martin Clunes, of Doc Martin fame, and still viewable on TVNZ+.
Barkley Manor’s owner, Krista Strong, died of cancer in 2022 and her parents eventually sold the business to Pengelly. He still has a user agreement to walk some of his charges in Strong’s forest at Kaukapapa. Owners who treat their dogs to a romp in the forest pay $65 and another $20 to spend the rest of the day in the Grey Lynn daycare. Daycare only is $60 for a casual rate, although most clients buy cheaper concessions rates.
Under Strong’s ownership, dogs would board at the Kaukapapa homestead. With that option no longer available, Barkley Manor offers overnight and longer stays with the “auntie and uncles” (Pengelly’s staff) at a cost of around $70 to $75 a night.
It’s been a steep learning curve for Pengelly to understand not only the business, but to learn more about dogs. Although a dog owner himself, he’s impressed by the “super-experienced and super-qualified” staff who came with the business, he says.
On a Monday more than 15 black labradors arrive at Barkley Manor, dogs that look almost identical to Pengelly.
“The staff can just name them all. I’m in awe of how they do it. "
Aware that he’s inherited a strong Barkley Manor brand from Strong, Pengelly wants to build on that, and expand the daycare’s retail business.
“We’ve got so many dog lovers walking in the door each morning, that’s a bit of an opportunity.”
Pengelly agrees with Bakewell that the perception that doggy daycares are a licence to print money is flawed.
“People see the cost and add up the dogs.”
But the reality is the expense of an inner-city location, staff and other costs mean the industry is not as profitable as people might think, he says.
Doggy daycares have not been without their issues in recent years with cases of noise complaints, escaped or stolen dogs, and dogs injured in fights hitting the news.
Surprisingly, Auckland Council does not know how many doggy daycares, pet hotels or kennels there are in the region because there are no controlling regulations. Wellington Council appears to be the only local authority that requires a licence.
Although pet facilities are required to comply with the Code of Welfare (Temporary Housing of Companion Animals) and the Code of Welfare for Dogs, no one is checking up on them, nor are there minimum qualifications needed to open a facility.
The SPCA wants that to change, calling for the industry to be regulated. It has a voluntary doggy daycare certification process, but so far only one facility, Central Bark in Parnell, has signed up. The SPCA also has a “how to choose a doggy daycare” section on its website.
Bakewell is in favour of regulation to make sure “cowboys” don’t give the industry a bad name. He says Pets in the City not only follows the SPCA guidelines, but goes above and beyond that.
“We know this industry will be regulated one day and when it is, we want to be at the forefront.”
Jane Phare is a senior Auckland-based business, features and investigations journalist, former assistant editor of NZ Herald and former editor of the Weekend Herald and Viva.
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