Marley Spoon marketer switches meal-kits for pet food

Marley Spoon marketing chief, Dave Malcolm, is switching food delivery for pet products and joining The Real Pet Food Company to head up ecommerce.

Malcolm has spent the last four-and-a-half years with Marley Spoon, where he was managing director of marketing and also a co-founder of the local edition of the meal-kit delivery business.

Previously, he was head of marketing and PR at Rockstar Games with an emphasis on the global brand’s local strategic marketing, business planning, brand awareness and insight efforts. Malcolm has also held shorter-term marketing roles with the likes of Cammy, Redhanded.com and was a managing partner at The Gravy Agency.

Malcolm officially joins the Real Pet Food Company team in October and reports to group CEO, David Grant. First founded in Queensland under the VIP Pet brand in 1994, Real Pet Food Company provides chilled and fresh pet food products. In 2017, former owner, Quadrant Private Equity, sold the business to a group of Asia-Pacific investors led by Hosen Capital in a deal valuing the company at $1 billion.

Malcolm will lead the company’s global ecommerce strategy in a newly created role for direct-to-consumer commerce. Real Pet Food Company also maintains a grocery FMCG marketing team.

“Pet food is a brand new space for me, but after speaking with the Real Pet Food team and seeing the group’s vision for the future of the business, I could immediately see the potential to grow a true challenger brand,” Malcolm commented.

“My experience with Marley Spoon provided an incredible opportunity to help build an ecommerce business locally from the ground up and have it reach profitability. So I’m excited for a new challenge.”

Marley Spoon is now advertising for a replacement chief marketing and growth officer to oversee both Marley Spoon and its Dinnerly brands in Australia, with dotted line reporting into both the local managing director and global chief marketing officer.

The ASX-listed company, which operates in six countries, reported a 55 per cent year-on-year increase in Australian revenue to $21.3 million euros (AUD: $35.5 million) for the half-year ending 30 June 2019, with global revenues of 61.4m euros. It also boasts of an annualised revenue run rate of more than $200m, and reported its first operating EBITDA profits in Australia in Q2, 2019.

Marley Spoon also struck a five-year partnership with Woolworths, a deal with saw the latter provide $30 million in investment funding to the business in return for a 9 per cent stake in the organisation.

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