How has the petcare category been performing over the last year?
The Petcare market continues to sustain positive growth. Shoppers & consumers are spending more on high-quality pet food especially wet food & treats as lockdowns allowed them to spend more time with their pets at home which means more time for pampering & rewarding their beloved pets.
This is also supported by a surge in pet ownership with around 11% of UK households welcomed a new pet during 2020. With continuance of pet humanisation coupled with ongoing premiumisation in pet food, the UK industry is forecasted to reach £4.75bn in 2025.
What shopper trends are driving the market?
Pet owners love to pamper their pets and the bond between pets and their humans has been a huge source of support to so many during the pandemic. Rewarding pets and strengthening that bond through food is something owners love to do. They are looking for reassurance that their choice of food is every bit healthy as it is tasty. Consumers continue to opt for more personalised, natural pet food choices & are looking for increased health benefits, to help maintain digestive health, mobility & healthy skin & coat. Convenience is also a key purchase driver as owners don’t want to worry about running out.
How have Nestle Purina’s brands been performing?
We work continuously to enrich the lives of pets and the people who love them. We have an amazing portfolio of popular, trusted brands & have seen our core brands go from strength to strength, as well as our extended Lily’s & Tails partners.
Tapping into the rise of new pet ownership and the growing consumer understanding of the importance of feeding life-stage specific advanced nutrition, Purina ONE is now the leader in both kitten & senior segments within the dry cat food category.
One of the standout NPD launches for us in convenience has been the Purina One 200g PMP, as well as Winalot pouch PMP range in 3’s and 12’s.
How is Nestle Purina committed to social and environmental responsibility?
At Purina we are committed to providing high-quality nutrition for pets, while protecting our planet for future generations. From the soil where our ingredients grow to our manufacturing facilities where our pet food is made, you can be confident we’re using resources efficiently as possible, while always looking for improvements around how sustainably we can produce your pets food.
When it comes to sustainable business practices, we source ingredients responsibly and continuously work to reduce our energy, water and waste from our operations. We’re also working to optimise our packaging and transport our products using highly efficient methods.
What are the key Nestle Purina products that wholesalers should be stocking?
Annually the Pet Food category in total convenience is worth £289 million, of which over £121 million is generated within Symbols and independent retailers (IRI). With pet owners wanting more convenient formats cat canning is in decline and cat pouches are growing strongly. In convenience, cat pouches make up 85% of wet cat sales and are leading wet cat growth growing over £3.7million year-on-year (IRI). Dog owners are also buying dog pouches: Winalot is number one pouch brand in Symbols and Independents growing 34% Year on Year (IRI).
As the number of pets has increased and pet parents have been spending more time at home with their pets, the bond between pet parents and their pets has become even more important. Treats have become an increasingly important pillar in the pet food offering and Treating in both cat and dog sectors has led to sales growing over £5.4 million in Convenience vs. LY Year (IRI). The Value sales of Cat and Dog snacks as a share of Pet Food in Convenience are growing over time and now make up over 23% of cat and dog food sales (IRI).
How do you work with wholesalers to grow sales?
The importance of the pet category’s core range should never be under-estimated, to ensure retailers are maximising their pet food sales. Core products such as branded bestsellers should be central to any retailers’ range as these are the products shoppers demand the most. Retailers should adapt their pet food range to meet needs of shoppers and offer breadth to give shoppers choice across the different pet food segments.
Do you have any merchandising advice for wholesalers to grow sales?
Using Clip Strips or display units can drive additional sales. Another area of opportunity to capitalise on is Christmas, where adding seasonal cat and dog treats to your range can drive impulse sales Delivery is a growing opportunity for retailers to widen their shopper catchment area and boost their sales. This can be delivered via the many apps available or from the retailers’ own delivery service with delivered spend being significantly higher than spend in store. Convenience retailers should have a good core range of pet food on the apps and consider creating bundle deals.
Do you have any NPD to talk about?
Yes, we are extending our range with Purina One 600g PMP launched and exclusive to the channel. Gourmet Mon Petit also launched recently drives value to your basket, and responds to shoppers premium needs. Gourmet Perle PMP will be launched later this year to continue to delight cats.
Looking to dog main meal; Winalot pouch continues to lead the category growth, bringing natural affordable wet food to the entry level wet dog shopper. To build on our successful portfolio of Winalot 3’s and 12’s in PMP’s.
We will also be investing in the Bakers brand to remain relevant to consumers. We know that shoppers are looking for more natural products. So the range is now made with selected natural ingredients and also has superfoods inclusion for the extra re-assurance that they are not just giving the best tasting meal to their dog, but a meal that’s good for their health too. Secondly, with ever raising environmental concerns, we know how important it is to have recyclable packaging and are happy to announce that all Bakers packaging will be recyclable in 2022.
What marketing activity do you have planned?
We have some incredibly exciting news coming on the UK’s #1 pet food brand – Felix as it goes live across the nation with a BRAND NEW campaign FELIX – Its Great to be a Cat! Celebrating all the loveable, mischievous moments which make it GREAT to be a cat, Felix – It’s Great to be a Cat! aims to bring joy to cat owners’ lives by disrupting their every day with this fun, irresistible campaign. Backed by a multi-million pound media investment, the new campaign is now on TV screens across the nation, followed by some exciting surprises and disruptive activities across a 360 degree campaign.
We continue to invest over £2.4m in our core dog brands to drive consideration and trial of our portfolio across all media touchpoints and help drive footfall into store and online. Bakers will be coming to market with a new exciting 360 comms campaign, which will hero our SuperFood launch. Winalot is putting real families at the heart of their award winning Great British Dogs Campaign sharing some incredibly heart-warming stories about the bonds between people and their pets.
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