Our Story

It is 1974 when Irene and Ilu Virtanen move to Pori. They found the company Watchman Oy and started dog guarding in Pori, e.g. in port with guard. The home will be established in Pori Reikko, an old farm. In the same year, the first child is born, and a few years later another daughter arrives. Over the years, Ilona in Reiko Virtasten has herded sheep, pigs, guinea pigs, ducks and cats, but the dogs have always been with her, regardless of the years. They also had to be fed with something, and so Ilu, being a man full of ideas, came up with the most different kinds of food to prepare for dogs. Even in the golden 80s, in the iconic Erkki Aalto's sausage factory in Rauma, a HotDog sausage stick for dogs was made, and in the bakery of the same gentleman, in old Rauma, on the side of the bakery, dog bread. Until the beginning of NEU's story, different kinds of dog food were prepared in the old barn, and maybe at some point even Royal Canin dry food was imported and then driven around the country of Finland, the little daughters of course taking part in the learning. At the end of the 90s, more precisely -98, the story of NEU begins. In the old barn, one 80-liter tipping boiler was purchased, which was used to make various soups for both own and nursing dogs, and small-scale sausages for sale to friends' dogs and puppies. A new recipe came out, which was then sent to the customers for tasting and testing. The rest is already history. Customers came back and asked for "that new product". The royal product was born. The demand for the basic NEU and other variants was so great that a new company had to be founded for dog food. Since Ilu has never loved paperwork, she asked her first-born daughter Tytti to manage the business. Tytti agreed with the idea, "along with my own work." At that time, the year was 2005. We had to come up with a name for the company. However, it was easy, and the king product to be produced gave the company its name in a way. After all, everyone wanted "the new" (new = neu in German). Ilu has always been an enthusiastic visitor to Germany and has been breeding German shepherds since 1975, so the German language was a natural choice for the name. And since the daughter was in a harness, a good alternative word for Neu's friend was frau (in Finnish frau = lady), after all, that Tytti is a lady. That was the name, NEUfrau = new lady. Virtaset has since retired, but Ilu's love for the well-being of dogs has not ended. This is illustrated by the KARP series developed by Ilu in 2014, which was developed for allergic dogs, which unfortunately there are a lot of dogs these days. Starting points are still the same, an old rural idyll and a former barn, but the facilities have been updated to meet current standards and the staff already has a dozen. We can call ourselves a traditional family business. In addition to Tytti, Tytti's husband Mika and son Roni work here. I am proud of my father's life's work, which must have been difficult to let go of and hand the business over to my daughter. But we take good care of it with Neu's team and continue manufacturing along the same lines as my father, the well-being of the dogs first. You can take a sneak peek at our activities in the video below.

About us

We are a company focused on the welfare and health of dogs. We act as a sales representative in Baltic countries for the Neu fresh frozen food made from high- quality raw materials specific to dogs of the Finnish company NEUfrau Oy.

DOGHEAL OY Takasenkatu 49 08150 Lohja Suomi - Finland Business ID 2625920-5 www.dogheal.net info.dogheal@gmail.com Tel +358 44 970 5416 Kaluri Tee 5, Viimsi, Tallinna Estonia

NEUfrau Oy Virtasentie 12, 28760 PORI Suomi - Finland Business ID 949064-4 www.neufrau.fi info@neufrau.fi Puh. +358 40 583 8788

Sales agent:

DOGHEAL SPA & WELLNESS

Our Story

It is 1974 when Irene and Ilu Virtanen move to Pori. They found the company Watchman Oy and started dog guarding in Pori, e.g. in port with guard. The home will be established in Pori Reikko, an old farm. In the same year, the first child is born, and a few years later another daughter arrives. Over the years, Ilona in Reiko Virtasten has herded sheep, pigs, guinea pigs, ducks and cats, but the dogs have always been with her, regardless of the years. They also had to be fed with something, and so Ilu, being a man full of ideas, came up with the most different kinds of food to prepare for dogs. Even in the golden 80s, in the iconic Erkki Aalto's sausage factory in Rauma, a HotDog sausage stick for dogs was made, and in the bakery of the same gentleman, in old Rauma, on the side of the bakery, dog bread. Until the beginning of NEU's story, different kinds of dog food were prepared in the old barn, and maybe at some point even Royal Canin dry food was imported and then driven around the country of Finland, the little daughters of course taking part in the learning. At the end of the 90s, more precisely -98, the story of NEU begins. In the old barn, one 80-liter tipping boiler was purchased, which was used to make various soups for both own and nursing dogs, and small-scale sausages for sale to friends' dogs and puppies. A new recipe came out, which was then sent to the customers for tasting and testing. The rest is already history. Customers came back and asked for "that new product". The royal product was born. The demand for the basic NEU and other variants was so great that a new company had to be founded for dog food. Since Ilu has never loved paperwork, she asked her first-born daughter Tytti to manage the business. Tytti agreed with the idea, "along with my own work." At that time, the year was 2005. We had to come up with a name for the company. However, it was easy, and the king product to be produced gave the company its name in a way. After all, everyone wanted "the new" (new = neu in German). Ilu has always been an enthusiastic visitor to Germany and has been breeding German shepherds since 1975, so the German language was a natural choice for the name. And since the daughter was in a harness, a good alternative word for Neu's friend was frau (in Finnish frau = lady), after all, that Tytti is a lady. That was the name, NEUfrau = new lady. Virtaset has since retired, but Ilu's love for the well- being of dogs has not ended. This is illustrated by the KARP series developed by Ilu in 2014, which was developed for allergic dogs, which unfortunately there are a lot of dogs these days. Starting points are still the same, an old rural idyll and a former barn, but the facilities have been updated to meet current standards and the staff already has a dozen. We can call ourselves a traditional family business. In addition to Tytti, Tytti's husband Mika and son Roni work here. I am proud of my father's life's work, which must have been difficult to let go of and hand the business over to my daughter. But we take good care of it with Neu's team and continue manufacturing along the same lines as my father, the well-being of the dogs first. You can take a sneak peek at our activities in the video below.

About us

We are a company focused on the welfare and health of dogs. We act as a sales representative in Baltic countries for the Neu fresh frozen food made from high-quality raw materials specific to dogs of the Finnish company NEUfrau Oy.