Just one year before their first trade fair appearance, Canadian vet Glorieux and Spanish graphic designer Aparicio had matured their sustainable idea in Berlin - to reduce the ecological footprint of pet food. At the beginning of 2018, the newly founded company EatSmall was already well positioned with four product lines and three different training snacks. A short time later, the dynamic duo ventured to take part in Interzoo, the world's largest trade fair for the pet industry, which is organised by the Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft Zoologische Fachbetriebe GmbH (WZF) in Nuremberg. As one of 21 startups at the joint stand for young entrepreneurs, which is subsidised by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action (BMWK).
First trade fair appearance as a milestone
As trade fair newcomers, the two were overwhelmed by the response to their first appearance. "We won our very first customers back then," says Veronique Glorieux, "that was a decisive step in our development, a milestone that took us forward by at least a year in four days."
For Bettina Wild, expert for startups and funding at NürnbergMesse, the EatSmall success story is "a great example of how you can make a big entry into the market from a joint stand - this first trade fair participation has strengthened the founders' business idea and created the first important contacts in the industry".
The two succeeded: 2018 was the year their young startup took off. Even before Christmas, several signed contracts with wholesalers were in the safe and a new product line was on the table as a finished design.
