The idea of cooking food for his dogs came to Alexis Kwong Alvarez in 2015 when Phoebe, one of his pugs, was diagnosed with throat cancer. Doctors were unable to pinpoint the root cause of her disease.
Kwong Alvarez realised it might have been the food his canine friend was consuming. Remembering that his mother had cooked food for their cats when he was a teenager, his started preparing his own food and this resulted in a slight improvement in Phoebe’s health despite her prognosis. From then on, Kwong Alvarez continued cooking for his dogs.
Dogalicious is an alternative to commercial food, which is known to be cheaply made with unwanted meat scraps and highly processed.
“Commercial pet food is really bad for your dog,” says Kwong Alvarez. “Imagine you’re eating McDonald’s every day. No matter how healthy the pets really are, it’s still bad.”
Dogalicious uses only real ingredients that are good enough for human consumption. It follows strict guidelines set out by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO), with meal plans designed by Australian pet nutritionists.
Phoebe eventually passed away, leaving Tina as Dogalicious’ only canine member. Happily, however, there is now a new addition to the Dogalicious family, a four year-old rescued Rottweiler named Courtney Love. “Dogs just grow to love you. You grow to love them. You grow attached to them,” says Kwong Alvarez.
The company was officially launched in December 2016. Kwong Alvarez’s small team receives fresh food every day at the Sheung Wan kitchen where all their meals are prepared. On any given day, 500 meals are packaged.
Dogalicious offers a weekly subscription business model. When their one-week free trial is up, customers can then decide whether to continue. Once subscribed, they receive a full week’s worth of tailor-made meals in one delivery.
Initially, this was not the case. During its soft launch period, it floated a monthly subscription. But feedback showed that the pricing was too high. To attract customers, Kwong Alvarez eventually set his price point at a minimum of HK$200 per week. The price increases depending on the size of the customer’s dog.
In April, one customer wrote a scathing review on Dogalicious’ Facebook page, complaining that their dog’s weight had fallen drastically. The surprised customer had only found this out on visiting the veterinarian.
“We tell [customers] to make sure that they monitor their dogs’ weight on a regular basis. And if there are any undesired changes, they should let us know,” says Kwong Alvarez. “We’ll increase the food, usually free of charge.”
The customer in question, however, had not monitored their dog’s weight. “Of course there are some criticisms. I usually don’t argue with them because the customer is always right,” says Kwong Alvarez.
Dogalicious delivers meals to most parts of Hong Kong except distant places such as Lantau, Shek O, the outlying islands, and remote areas. Kwong Alvarez says the company plans to soon extend its delivery area with the help of a new logistics company.
As with many start-ups, Dogalicious’ first year has been a challenging one. Staying afloat is even more difficult in the food and beverage industry. But getting a business off the ground stops many people from the get-go.
“You ask: ‘is it going to work? If it is not going to work, what’s going to happen?’ With my personality, I don’t worry. I try not to, anyway. There’s no point in worrying. So the uncertainty is what stops a lot of entrepreneurs,” says Kwong Alvarez.
He cites many other reasons that prevent people from starting their own business, from the fear of leaving a corporate job with the comfort of a monthly salary, to having to deal with the various risks involved on a day-to-day basis.
When asked about how to succeed in a venture like his, especially in the highly competitive world of the food industry, Kwong Alvarez says the most important thing for an entrepreneur to do is to put their brand out there – an important factor – and also ensure high-quality food and service.
(Photo: Laurence Leung)
