Following meetings at BLE, Cats Protection has  appointed  licensing agency Brands with Influence to manage its licensing program.

Cats Protection is a UK charity dedicated to rehoming cats, supporting cat owners, educating people about cat care and campaigning for a better deal for cats.

Cats Protection is the UK’s largest cat welfare charity. In every corner of the UK their passionate volunteers, employees and supporters are using their kindness and expertise to make life better for millions of cats and the people who care for them.

There are over 10.6 million owned cats in the UK, with one in four households (25%) owning a cat. Young cat owners are an important group, driving many of the trends in the cat market. Of all of the cats acquired in the last twelve months, 53%, or over 800,000, were acquired by 18 to 34 year olds.

This enormous universe of “Cat Lovers”, with a ready made retail distribution network presents a fabulous opportunity to licensees. Talking about the appointment Martin Lowde, CEO, Brands with Influence explained why BWI was so keen to take on the licensing business.

“We are a nation of pet lovers and when we discovered the penetration of cat owners was so high in the UK, we were immediately interested in how we can bring licensed product to these customers. Cats Protection does amazing work, and the licensing income will be directly supporting this work, but the key to success here is working with the right licensing partners to generate really desirable products, and products that work for all ages.”

Over the coming months BWI will be working with licensing partners from Publishing through to Plush and Gifting through to Homewares.