Meet the Diner's staff

There are quite a few of us but as you will see it is a family business! 

Starting with the Ridyard family the Directors are Husband & Wife; Ann & Chris Ridyard, Sophie & Zak, their grown up children are also directors.

Each and every team member helps to ensure that the Diner runs smoothly.

You can read more about Ann (left) the Diner's founder on our history page

Zak, along with his mother Ann, founded the Dog's Diner in 2013.

Having worked in his dad's grooming studio for a few years and with a deep love of dogs, Zak showed great enthusiasm with the development of the business and the Dog's Diner was born.

Although just 21 years old when the Diner opened, Zak was already an experienced raw feeder; having grown up with it, he knew no other way to feed our beloved dogs. His passion for raw feeding continues, but Zak having conquered all areas of running the Diner is now our Accounts Manager and has to spend some of his time in the office embracing the boring stuff!

Zak, along with his sister Sophie, now do all the ordering for the Diner.
Although he loves all dogs, Zak's favourite breed is a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, so don't be surprised if he goes mushy over yours!

Sophie was the 3rd family member onboard team Dog's Diner!

Sophie had trained as a hairdresser and also a Nursery Nurse but
never really settled to either with passion. When she began to work
at the Diner in 2014, aged 23, the passion began to flow and she
immersed herself totally. Also having grown up with raw feeding, she has thrived in the Diner.
Sophie is loopy about dogs but her favourite breeds are bullies.

Now with a family of her own and 2 cats and a dog, Sophie is now
the Dog's Diner manager and very much front of house.

She is our chief advisor and runs all the Diner's social media. If you
message the Diner, it is Sophie who will answer you.
Sophie continually sources new and exiting products to bring to the
Diner and her enthusiasm continues to grow.

Ian is Sophie's partner and the 4th family member to join us. He began working for the Diner in 2014, aged 24.

Ian had lived in the raw feeding family home with Sophie for years
prior to beginning work in the Diner and so he was very familiar with raw feeding.

Ian is a trained chef, helping to run a kitchen, which he left to come and work in the Diner. He immediately fitted in and embraced all areas of the growing business, particularly an idea which was evolving in to a reality. Alexander's Natural was born.

Ian is the face behind Alexander's Natural and manages the factory.

He develops new products and brings exiting additions to our home brand range. An intricate part of the Diner,
Ian's skills as a chef have been totally instrumental in the success of Alexander's Natural.

Ian is mostly in the factory but does spend time working in
the Diner too. His favourite breeds are also bullies!

Sam began working at the Diner in 2014, aged 14.
Employed as a Saturday lad, he was rather shy and spent most of his time filling
up stock. This continued with the years and Sam worked more and
more hours until at the grand old age of 20,
in 2020 he went full time.
Sam grew up! He is no longer shy and his friendly face can often be found on the counter, where his polite and helpful manner is popular with customers. He helps out wherever needed in the Diner and has recently begun to conduct swap overs as a raw advisor.
He is our longest standing team member outside family
and has proved himself a capable young man who approaches work with enthusiasm and surprising level headedness for his age.
Sam adores cats and dogs but has a particular love of a certain Border Collie!

Sam has been our baby and has grown up with us, he is part of the
fabric of the Diner and much loved team member.

Declan came to us on recommendation from a friend, aged 17 in 2016. Having had prior jobs he found no joy in Dec was looking for full time work.
From the minute he started working in the Diner we knew he was a keeper. Declan has grown in confidence and has become a key member of our team.
Declan threw himself in to the job and always gives 100% and if you need to know where anything is or if we have it in stock, Dec's your man!

Declan has proved himself a very reliable team member who
thrives when busy. He now conducts swap-overs to raw and has
recently been promoted to Team Leader in the Diner at the grand
old age of 22!!
You can find him here, there and everywhere, all over everything!
We love our Dec.

Simon was 'head hunted'! Another trained chef who knew what hard work meant Si came to work for us in 2018 aged 30.
Initially employed as a freezer manager, he embraced every change we threw his way.
No matter what is asked of him Si will have a go.
He is a very versatile team member, who can work upstairs in the Alexander's Natural factory but is equally as good working downstairs in the Diner. He has even done deliveries.

Simon is a popular and friendly face in the Diner but has settled his chef training and talents to working in the Alexander's Natural factory upstairs and he is now the team leader up there, a strong reliable character that you just wouldn't want to be without, that's our Si.

Morgan came to the Diner on work experience and we didn't really want her to leave at the end.
She started July 2019, aged 16 for her Level 2 in animal care diploma. Not long after that she started as a Saturday girl.


At the beginning of 2020, she then began working part time in the Diner and hasn't looked back.
Morgan is very definitely Sophie's side kick and the two of them make a phenomenal front of house combination. Morgan bursts with enthusiasm and her love of all things animal just shines from her.

Her career will be with animals, this young lady has a heart bigger than China and a personality to match.
Now taking on raw consultations and learning more and more, she is a very enthusiastic member of the team.
Morgan just loves everything and we love her.

David was another 'head hunted' chef who we brought on the
Diner team when he was 31, in 2018. David has proved himself to
be a very versatile team member who is happy to help wherever he can.

He approaches his work with enthusiasm and is a reliable and
sound member of the team.
He too has taken changes to his position and embraced them,
originally working purely in the Diner, David is now part of the Alexander's team upstairs using his cheffy kitchen skills.

You may also see David working in the Diner when needed and is a
very friendly and helpful team player. David turned out to be a diamond.

Lee came to work for us on a part time basis when he was 21, in
February 2019. A friend of Zak's, he fitted in very well and at the time he was studying Computer Software at university.
Lee then graduated and when the world turned upside down with
Covid, his then certain future wasn't so certain. Lee had proved to
be a versatile and hard working member of staff, he too had to
embrace change as we shifted him upstairs and downstairs. So in March 2020 Lee began working full time in the Diner.

Lee is mostly back of house, stocking up and taking orders.
He is an exceptionally polite and helpful team member who tries
hard with all tasks and has gone from strength to strength whilst
working for us and because of this he is very valued and when the world does return to normal and Lee moves on, he will be missed very much.

Kieran, aged 38 was our last 'head hunted'! trained chef and he be-gan working for us in 2019 before the world went mad!
Initially Kieran was supposed to be team Diner but as with everything in the Diner, things change and so did Kie's role.
Living up to the recommendation he came on Kie proved to be a serious team player, embracing any changes and giving them his best shot. He has great customer service skills and works hard, making him a popular member of the team.
Again flexible with his skills he is now part of team Alexander's
Natural and works upstairs in the factory quite a lot.

Kieran is also our delivery driver, so a man of many talents and a
very important part of our team, we hope he sticks around.

Matty is the baby of the bunch at just 14 years old, not that you would realise to look at him, he's very tall!
Mathew began working for us just to help out during the madness of the lockdown and he turned out to be an enormous help! Matty has now been taken on as a Saturday lad and he helps out for a few hours during the week.

He is learning to take on the hard working values of the team and
we are sure that Matty will continue to develop his role within the team while he is learning the ropes.