Raw and fresh is one of the few categories where an independent can still out-specialise the grocers — and one of the few most independents have not entered. The reason is almost never conviction. It is floor space. A chest freezer is a real commitment: a square metre you cannot use for anything else, a standing electricity cost, and a category that has to earn that space back before it has proved itself. Plenty of shops decide the maths does not work and stop there. That decision is now out of date. There are three routes into raw that need no freezer at all, and they let you test customer demand on a shelf before you commit a single square metre to frozen. Three ways into raw without a chest freezer 1. Gently steamed complete meals Ambient 395g trays, stored and sold on a normal shelf. No freezer, no defrosting, no thaw window to explain to a customer. Meat content is 68%, and the range runs across six live recipes — Duck, Lamb, Chicken and Beef for adults, plus a puppy turkey recipe and a senior turkey and salmon recipe with green-lipped mussel, glucosamine and chondroitin. This is the easiest first order to justify. It sits with your existing wet and complete food, it needs no new equipment, and it gives a customer already curious about raw something to try without asking them to reorganise their own freezer either. 2. Freeze-dried complete food Shelf-stable 225g packs in Beef, Chicken and Lamb, at 75% meat. Freeze-drying pulls the water out under vacuum rather than heat, so the pack keeps the structure and nutrient profile of raw while behaving like a dry good on your shelf. The commercially useful part is the feed rate. Because the water is gone, a little goes a long way — a 10kg dog needs roughly 90g a day. A small pack represents a meaningful number of meals, which means strong value per shelf facing and a genuinely light, easy-to-handle case for your team. 3. Freeze-dried toppers and treats The lowest-risk entry point of all, and the one that does most of the selling for you. Toppers come in 50g packs at 95% meat in Beef, Chicken and Lamb; treats in 30g packs at 90% meat in Beef and Chicken. These work as an impulse and counter line rather than a category commitment. A customer who buys a topper for a fussy dog has started raw feeding without being asked to believe anything about it, and they come back for the same pack. It is also the cheapest way to find out whether your customer base is interested at all before you order complete food. The formats side by side Format Pack sizes Meat content Where it lives Gently steamed complete 395g trays 68% Ambient shelf. No freezer, no defrost. Freeze-dried complete 225g 75% Ambient shelf. Shelf-stable. Freeze-dried topper 50g 95% Ambient shelf or counter. Freeze-dried treat 30g 90% Ambient shelf or counter. Frozen raw complete 500g trays, 1.4kg chubbs Varies by recipe Freezer. Orders need a minimum of 5kg of frozen items. When a freezer does earn its space None of the above replaces frozen, and it would be a disservice to pretend otherwise. Frozen complete raw is still the core of the category: the widest recipe range, the customers who feed raw exclusively, and the basket sizes that come with a weekly or fortnightly shop rather than an occasional pack. Frozen raw is fed at 2-3% of the dog's ideal bodyweight per day. For a household with two medium dogs, that is a standing order, not an impulse buy, and it is the kind of repeat revenue that justifies a freezer quickly once you know the demand is there. So the honest sequence is: prove the demand on ambient, then commit the space. If you get there, there is a point-of-sale freezer range alongside the FSDU deals, posters, signs, stickers and leaflets — so the freezer arrives merchandised rather than as a white box in a corner. What your customers will ask Four questions come up almost every time. It's worth making sure whoever is on the shop floor has an answer. “Is ambient really the same as raw?” Not identical, and do not claim it is. Gently steamed is cooked gently rather than raw; freeze-dried is raw with the water removed. Both are built on the same meat-first recipes. The honest answer — closer to raw than a kibble, easier to live with than frozen — is also the most persuasive one. “Do I need to do anything to it?” No defrosting for either format. That is the whole point, and it is the single line that converts the customer who has been put off raw by the faff. “Isn't that small pack expensive?” Reframe it as meals, not grams. At roughly 90g a day for a 10kg dog, a freeze-dried pack goes further than it looks. Work the per-day figure out with them at the counter. “Can I mix it with what I already feed?” This is what toppers are for, and it is the easiest yes in the category. The bottom line The freezer question has been the gate on this category for years, and it is no longer the gate. You can stock raw on a shelf, find out what your customers actually want, and commit the floor space later — in that order, with very little at risk. Stock the range Gently steamed complete meals Gently Steamed Beef 395g Gently Steamed Chicken 395g Gently Steamed Lamb 395g Gently Steamed Duck 395g Puppy Gently Steamed Turkey 395g Senior Gently Steamed Turkey & Salmon 395g Freeze-dried complete food Freeze Dried Food - Beef 225g Freeze Dried Food - Chicken 225g Freeze Dried Food - Lamb 225g Freeze-dried toppers and treats Freeze Dried Topper - Beef 50g Freeze Dried Topper - Chicken 50g Freeze Dried Topper - Lamb 50g Freeze Dried Treats - Beef 30g Freeze Dried Treats - Chicken 30g Browse the full Ambient Complete Recipes and Freeze Dried ranges, or the point-of-sale freezers if you are ready to commit the space. Not yet stocking with us? Become a trade partner — five raw brands on one trade account. Our code of conduct sets out how applications are assessed and what opening an account commits you to.
