If You Can Take a Two-Week Vacation and Not Open Your Laptop, the Company Is Working

Pascal Hanle, Chief Operating Officer of Pets Deli, tells one of the more unusual origin stories in German DTC: a pet food company that went bankrupt, was bought out of insolvency, and was handed to its most tenacious early employee to rebuild from scratch — beginning with Pascal literally sawing frozen meat blocks with a bow saw in the office kitchen to test new suppliers. Now in his 10th year at the company, with 135 FTEs, a warehouse that grew from 3,000 to 11,000 square meters, B2B accounts at Rewe and Edeka, and a target of €100M by 2030, Pascal shares what it actually takes to build durable unit economics, why ownership is the only metric that matters beyond revenue, and why the real sign of a healthy company is whether its CEO can spend two weeks in Egypt without opening a laptop.   Topics Discussed How Pascal joined Pets Deli 1, survived the insolvency, and became the first real employee of Pets Deli 2 after an asset deal The rebuild of 2017-2018: completely changed product portfolio, took over supply chain and logistics internally The bow saw moment: sourcing new meat suppliers and sawing frozen meat blocks in the office kitchen to test quality Why the original business model (frozen pet food, outsourced supply chain) had structurally terrible unit economics The core lesson: good margins don't come from economies of scale — they come from meticulous, unglamorous supplier renegotiations The Brexit overstock mistake: overpreparing for supply disruption led to €200-300K of dry food running into best-before dates The vacation health test: two weeks in Egypt, laptop never opened — that's when you know the company is working Current company: 135 FTEs across HQ (65-70), 5 physical stores, and a 45-person warehouse in Frankenberg Warehouse expansion: 3,000 sqm → 11,000 sqm, all logistics now fully in-house B2B growth: Rewe, Edeka as major retail partners; ~1,000 Rewe POS locations; targeting 50%+ B2B revenue growth D2C vs. B2B operational challenge: D2C has predictable repeat behavior for forecasting; B2B is erratic and fast-moving Ownership philosophy: real ownership requires letting people make decisions — even the wrong ones — or ownership dies The 4:30am warehouse story: shift lead showed up independently to recount audit items; now manages half the warehouse From startup to company: the first 20 employees are gone; processes replaced personal relationships; culture requires deliberate maintenance 2030 goal: €100M revenue; expanding German footprint and potentially entering new markets