This Is Guernsey

A PET product designed and made in Guernsey is breaking into foreign markets after just a year’s trading. The Pet Porte microchip cat flap, created by vet David Chamberlain and electronics engineer Nick Smith, could be sold in the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Australia, New Zealand and Denmark from next year.

The product features a scanner that recognises a cat’s microchip so that only it is allowed into the property.

Mr Smith said the flap provided the solution to some of the most common feline-related problems.

‘With a normal cat flap, other cats come in and out and eat the owner’s pet food, which can be really expensive if their cat is on a special diet,’ he said.

‘One homeowner even put their house on the market to move away from a rogue cat that kept coming into their house.

‘Another cat urinated on someone’s coffee machine and ended up setting the house on fire.

‘Often cats will fight with each other and those vets’ bills really mount up, so it’s a serious problem - especially in built-up areas.’

In 2000 there was already a cat flap on the market that identified each cat and prevented other people’s pets from entering the property.

However, this required the animal to wear a collar - something that many owners were not keen on because they often got lost and need replacing at a substantial cost.

These days, most cats are fitted with a microchip under their skin anyway, so Mr Smith and Mr Chamberlain got to work inventing a product that would read that chip and dispense with the need for a collar.

‘The cat flap was trialled in Guernsey, which was a very valuable process in order to find out if the product was going to be commercially viable or not,’ said Mr Smith. ‘It gave us the opportunity to iron out the various problems we had with it before going into production and having to call back loads of units.

‘We are very proud to have kept most of its manufacturing local in the island.

‘Offshore Electronics are involved and we also put enough business through St Peter’s Post Office to keep that going as well.

‘We employ four full-time local people and we are looking for more staff as we are expanding all the time.’

Pet Porte, which costs around £100, started selling in November 2006 and was out of stock within three months.

It has been named most innovative product in this month’s Your Cat magazine.

As well as exploring European markets, the United States is another possibility, although the flap must first be adapted to read American microchips.

‘There are other products in the pipeline for the future but we are keeping them close to our chests for now,’ said Mr Smith.

‘We like to keep the public guessing. There are more innovative products that people are asking for and we think we have the answers.’