A short history of Ark Wildlife
OUR ROOTS
Sean was raised on a Bedfordshire smallholding in the 1960’s, surrounded by apple orchards, ponds and allotments.
His playground was the great outdoors where he learned about the environment and all the incredible diversity living in it.
During the 1970’s he witnessed his first environmental disaster when Dutch Elm Disease killed all the ancient elms he’d grown up climbing, swinging in, and living with.
OUR JOURNEY
After pushing lawn mowers for thousands of miles, Sean began recommending and building special areas for wildlife in his customers’ gardens.
During the 1990’s trend for outdoor living making decking, patios and plastic lawns popular, (all an anathema to him) Sean acted on his instincts, bucked the trend and founded a new business; Noah’s Ark Wildlife Gardens.
He continued building his knowledge of British Fauna, Flora and Funga, avidly reading, experimenting and learning from his own garden and beyond.
THIRTY YEARS & COUNTING
Today, Ark Wildlife remains dedicated to creating habitats for wildlife in peoples gardens and Sean continues to drive the business forward with the same energy and enthusiasm as ever.
We are now the leading independent supplier of bird food, wildlife feed, habitats and accessories in the UK and continue to offer customers simple solutions to help wildlife thrive – garden by garden – one simple change at a time.
Ark Wildlife Timeline
1991 – Sean opens Noah’s Ark Natural Gardens opens garden landscaping services with an emphasis on native and wildlife friendly species planting schemes.
1997 – Trendy TV makeover programmes such as ‘Ground Force’ and ‘Homefront: In the Garden’ create a huge demand for ‘outdoor rooms’ with large patios or decking and exotic hardy plants.
1998 – In contrast to current trends, Sean changes the name of Noah’s Ark Natural Gardens to Noah’s Ark Wildlife Gardens, concentrating on the development of wildlife areas within garden designs.
1999 – Noah’s Ark Wildlife Gardens start designing and supplying nest boxes, wildlife habitats and bird food.
2001 – Responding to demand, Noah’s Ark Wildlife Gardens launch their own range of carefully selected and blended natural bird feed mixes, under the brand name Ark.
2001 – At the outset the decision is taken to use paper sacks rather than cheaper plastic options, to comply with Sean’s values based business ethos.
2003 – The online shop is added to the website, allowing sales across the UK.
2007 – A major national pet food distributor copies the name Noah’s Ark (very flattering) and applies it to a bird care range resulting in a legal battle. Later, new Trade Marks are granted to Ark Wildlife to give them exclusive use of the brands across the whole pet, bird care and wildlife sectors.
2008 – Ark Wildlife move to their new larger base at Dog Kennel Farm, Hitchin, Herts and make it administration and distribution HQ.
2010 – Our 100,000th bird food order is taken online, packed and dispatched from Hertfordshire and delivered to Chesterfield in Derbyshire in just 24 hours (the same with all orders)!
2011 – New logo launched to better reflect Ark Wildlife’s continuing commitment to all garden wildlife; not just the birds.
2011 – Ark Charity Partner Scheme is launched to help generate funds for wildlife carers and rehabilitators.
2011 – Introduction of our ‘Return, Reuse & Recycle Scheme’ allowing customers to return all plastics free of charge.
2012 – Sees the launch of our innovative Duck Pots, providing excellent, nutritious duck food for parks and visitor attractions across the UK.
2014 – Independent scientific analysis of all our wildlife foods demonstrates our commitment to excellence.
2015 – New waste handling equipment installed in our warehouses, turning all paper and card into packaging material, reducing waste by over 50% volume.
2015 – Sees the growth & expansion of our Hedgehog Heroes sponsorship campaign, with Ark donating over £5000 of hedgehog food each year to wildlife carers.
2018 – UK first. Ark introduce sugar cane plastic packaging for sustainable plastics that are carbon positive, locking in plant waste from food crops.
2020 – Our new Ark Wildlife website is launched – let us know what you think!
2021 – Ark Wildlife achieve their goal of supplying all branded goods in paper, carboard, sugar-cane, or 100% recycled plastic.
The future
It is heartening to know that through the use of bird food we can have a positive influence on bird populations and are now seeing an abundance of birds in UK gardens.
After 30+ years providing natural food and habitats that offer significant benefits to garden wildlife, we look forward to the next 30 years with the same enthusiasm that we started with.
Call us today on freephone 0800 085 4865 to chat about the changes you can make to your garden and become a part of something greater.
