Nothing is too good for your cat. Gourmet Gold (Nestle Purina) had once again demonstrated his last Christmas with advent calendar for cats. Within bloated, with about 300 references in hypermarkets, market participants are trying everything to distinguish. Increasingly segmented, the offer meets the multiplicity of races and needs (neutered cats, dogs, seniors …). If the volume growth is limited by the stagnation of the animal population, this does not prevent the market to go upmarket. "The market valuation is an underlying trend for twenty years, due in significant R & D of the two main actors," says Sophie Dubois, president of Nestle Purina PetCare France, leading supermarkets. "It's a market that is still growing despite the crisis through a range of increasingly sophisticated," said Mr. Klersy, boss of Mars Petcare & Food France, elbow to elbow with Nestle.
All channels, the market grew by nearly 2% last year, driven by the cat food in supermarkets (+4.8%) and by specialized circuits (+2.2%) and hard discount (+ 2.8%). Manufacturers are dealing with consumers particularly loyal to brands and less fussy about spending. "The teachers treat their pets like their babies, says Paula Flores, an analyst at Euromonitor. They prefer to arbitrate in their other expenses rather than penalizing their animals and they pay more attention to product composition and origin of ingredients. "
The niche of organic
As in the human diet, it is the aspect that health and nutrition is most strongly developed in recent years. Revenues have been revised to aid digestion, promote the beauty of the hair, oral hygiene … Purina has launched earlier this year provides a digest of Friskies. The challenger, Spanish Ultima (Affinity Petcare), which is gaining ground in France, it has launched a premium milk "digestion light" for cats minibouteille plastic. He also headed for the prevention of aging dogs with Protect +, based antioxidants.
Manufacturers have also seized of the issue of overweight, which affects 40% of dogs and cats, often in search of exercise. Offers a light there for six years. Pedigree (March) has launched a range of kibble for the prevention of obesity. For the first time in the pet food, calories per serving and recommendations daily on the packaging. "We want to make it more accessible nutrition that was found previously in dedicated circuits, but more expensive," explains Michel Klersy.
The form and content are treated as one as the other: in March launched a new container (Sheba Dome Fusion), Purina an offer for the week (Gourmet A la Carte) … In high growth (+10%), the individual portions Cat boosted the market because of their practicality. The pouches have the tackiness can. At the initiative of March, challenger on this radius, the portions are smaller (50 g) and more refined (and steaming grill). As for brands, down like the rest of the food, they are the only ones to have invested the organic niche.
"There is still a high growth potential"
But the big winners of the linear snacks are undoubtedly dominated by Mars. Another commonality between the companions and their masters, adepts of snacking … This is the fastest growing segment of the market (+ 12% of the dog, 23% of cats). Along with sweets, biscuits and dental sticks, there is even now a … sauce pour over patties signed Brekkies (Ultima), which resembles nothing so much as a bottle of ketchup!
Dedicated circuits (garden centers, pet …), who suffer their price image, continue to hold the upper hand on the superpremium. Proplan (Nestle) is working to reduce the gap with the great leader, Royal Canin (Mars), and target new health benefits as those of older cats or those suffering from urinary stones. In these circuits, "there is still a strong growth potential because we have to convert all those who have not yet aware of how nutrition," says Isabelle Bellet, development manager for France Procter & Gamble (Eukanuba , Iams), the youngest, who put on animal protein composition and gluten and soy products.
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