Our Story

“I spent the first 16 years of my life growing up with and caring for these amazing animals” – James, founder.

Hey, I’m James and I am the founder of Imperial Pet Co. I can proudly say that I spent the first 16 years of my life growing up with and caring for deer on my family farm in Canterbury, New Zealand.

Growing up on the farm, I quickly developed a deep connection and appreciation for the amazing deer as I helped care for them. I was constantly learning which meant I was constantly in awe. I even had my own stag that I cared for from a fawn. I got to name him and I still remember his big red tag, #10. The number 10 is one of my lucky numbers to this day.

Although our farm had been supplying deer velvet for many years, I didn’t really understand what it was used for until I got older. It wasn’t until my older brother broke a bone in his ankle playing rugby and was given some deer velvet powder that I learned of its medicinal use and healing properties.

Sean was told he would be off the field for 4-6 months but after just 6 weeks he was training again and after just 3 months he was back in the game.

It was a few years later that Sean and I went on to start our own company selling deer velvet for humans. The feedback over the years from customers was amazing and became one of the biggest highlights of running our business. Then, with this success, we decided to move into the canine health market too.

At this time our family dog, Mac, a big beautiful golden retriever, was starting to show signs of arthritis from old age. We decided he would be our first trial. We ran Mac on a deer velvet mix for a few weeks and the results were incredible! Our little man was moving better, he was happier, his coat was shiny and he had a new found spring in his step. We trialed the product on a number of other pets all with similarly positive results. That was confirmation enough for us and our new venture began.

Our company ran for many years and I was lucky enough to receive hundreds of emails from happy customers from all around the world that had seen the same results as we had with Mac.

I left the company in my brothers’ capable hands while I went traveling for a period of time, but throughout my overseas travels I was constantly thinking about how well this product had helped our customers in New Zealand. Whenever I saw a dog limping, or would hear about someone’s dog that had arthritis, I would think “deer velvet should be available for every pet in need.”

With all of this in mind, I started Imperial Pet Co. in 2016. The goal was and still is to widen the market and make this natural canine health supplement accessible to everybody. I want to give dog lovers like me a choice other than synthetic treatments for their pets.

Imperial Pet Co is now in 6 countries and we have sold thousands upon thousands of bottles. To this day, my favorite part of the job remains the same…hearing from you! Hearing your stories from around the world about how these products have helped your dogs is exactly why Imperial exists and why we work so hard. We look forward to hearing more wonderful stories in the years to come.

Best,
James