We’ve all had them! Those light bulb moments of discovery when – Eureka! – the answer to a seemingly impossible situation hits you squarely in the face.
At YuMOVE, we call them YuREKA! moments They’re the day you discover YuMOVE for the first time. Or the spine-tingling moment you realise our supplements are making a real, visible difference to your dog.
Of course, we’ve had plenty of YuREKA moments of our own – from discovering our secret ingredient and tracing it to a special location in New Zealand to proving the doubters wrong and getting the scientific validation that YuMOVE can really help dogs!
Here, YuMOVE co-founder John Howie reveals the top five YuREKA moments that helped YuMOVE become the UK’s no.1 veterinary joint supplement brand.*
Co-founders John Davies and John Howie.
1. An innovative approach to joint care
Following the successful launch of YuMOVE’s first skin and coat supplement, YuMEGA, in 2007, customers were soon clambering for more.
“People kept asking, ‘What about my dog’s joints?’” recalls John. “At first, we thought the market was too crowded. Then we realised everyone was doing the same thing with little effect and that we could take a new approach.”
While others focused solely on joint structure ingredients, John and his co-founder, John Davies, began looking for ingredients to help support the anti-inflammatory response and support mobility in dogs. The answer, they discovered, was a set of specific Omega-3 fatty acids in Green Lipped Mussel (GLM). YuREKA!
Now, they had to find a supplier.
2. Sourcing the secret ingredient
“We visited lots of suppliers with no luck,” says John. “But I vividly remember the moment we found it. I was offered a seat on a scruffy old yellow sofa in the corner of a warehouse and thought, ‘I hope the products are better than the waiting area.’”
He didn’t have to wait long! “The supplier handed me a data graph from a very specific source of GLM. I don't think he even knew what he was showing me, but I could see it had the unique Omega-3 profile I’d been looking for. ‘That's it,’ I thought. ‘That's the answer!’” says John. YuREKA!
3. The science backs YuMOVE
Although John and John knew they had something truly special, they wanted to remove any doubt. So, they commissioned a top-level study.
“A clinical study by the Royal Veterinary College in London proved that YuMOVE made a difference,” says John. “And, when we looked at the specific batch of GLM that’d been used in the trial, we realised it contained the highest levels of a particular ratio of Omega-3s.
“To maintain the effectiveness of our products, that ratio became our benchmark of quality and the specification for our unique ActivEase® GLM.”
However, it wasn’t all plain sailing.
At around the same time, a few dog owners reported their YuMOVE wasn’t working as well as it used to. “When we investigated, we discovered the GLM we were getting didn’t always meet the high spec we required,” says John. “So, we hopped on a plane to New Zealand and went directly to the source.”
Now, we’d found a way to ensure we always achieve the high standards we’d set ourselves. YuREKA!
4. A time and place
While in New Zealand, the Johns made another important discovery – when and where you harvest your mussels matters.
“Things like water flow, temperature, time of year and physical location make a massive difference,” says John. “We only source from specific locations that have consistently produced the high specification GLM in ActivEase® and only do so at certain times of the year.
How the mussels are dried is also vital. “Most drying processes damage the GLM powder, and this leads to its quality deteriorating further over time. Our unique, rapid approach dries the GLM in a fraction of the time, helping to lock in the natural profile of the GLM and preserve it,” says John.
“No one else in the world does this, which is why ActivEase® is unique to YuMOVE.” YuREKA!
5. The future’s bright; the future’s backed by science!
“This is a massive YuREKA moment for the future of mobility in dogs,” reveals John.
“As part of our ongoing research programmes, we tested adding other ingredients to ActivEase® to see what happened. We identified one particular active ingredient from another marine source, which has a big impact on the level of effectiveness of the product – much more than we expected.
“We’ve now had two patents granted on the combination – one in the UK and one in the US – with more in the pipeline. We’re using that patented combination in our Max Strength products and seeing amazing effects.”
YuMOVE is the only joint supplement with this unique, high-performance combination. YuREKA!
But the innovation doesn’t end there. “I've maintained from the start that we should be our own best competitor,” says John. “If someone is going to try to invent something better than ours, it better be us!” Watch this space.
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