Duc Duk DUCK? Where we got our name.
 
Over fifty years ago a litter of German Shepherd pups was born. Three of the people who bought pups from it chose the same name – Duk – which was very popular at the time. But you can’t use the same name more than once on the family tree. So, two of the owners changed the spelling a bit.

One of the pups was registered as Duk, the second as Duc, and the pup that ended up with the founder of the current firm became Duck. No one stopped to consider that Duck was also the English word for a well-known group of waterfowl – and certainly not that Michel Straetmans might end up producing dog food. 

However, as it happened, the same Michel Straetmans soon became dissatisfied with the dog food that was on the market. So, with the support of an expert in the world of natural food that he had met, he started preparing food for his dog – Duck  – himself.

In the clubs he went to, people quickly noticed that his dog looked much better, worked with more enthusiasm, had better stools and a much shorter moulting period. They asked Michel if he would make the same food as he made for Duck for their dogs. To begin with he did it as a favour. However, as he got more and more requests, the quantities became so large that a few years later he was obliged to start producing it commercially. 

The fact is, the name DUCK was born before the product that we all know now. 
The optimal quality of DUCK dog food can be attributed to the spirit in which it was created. It was developed not for sale, but to provide the founder’s beloved dog with the best possible nutrition. 

The next generation?

Good food is not like a fashion item or wash powder that can be improved every year. The most we can do is produce different flavours and improve the packaging. It was evolution that determined the ideal food for dogs, hundreds of thousands of years ago. Even domestication has had no effect on it. 

When the current managing director, the innately dynamic Philippe Straetmans, took over the business from his father, he was able to make a lot of improvements in the production line, for example, the distribution and the packaging. What he could not improve was the nutritional concept behind the food. It was already ideal, just as it was when the company was founded, 50 years earlier. Fortunately, Philippe not only inherited employees and business drive from his father and grandfather, he also inherited a love of animals in general and dogs in particular. That is why, more than 50 years later, the quality of the food is still the number one priority.