PET POWER
To maintain pet food sales momentum, grocers must offer pet parents premium products and variety By Carolyn Cooper Pet food has been a fast-growing category for grocers in the past year, as COVID-conscious consumers relied on one-stop-shopping at grocery for their pet food needs rather than hitting their usual specialty pet retailers and club stores. To keep pet parents returning post-pandemic, grocers will need to invest in their pet food aisles and offer the wider variety of pet food and snack options shoppers are demanding. “ There’s a huge opportunity here that’s just not being tapped,” says Jo-Ann McArthur, president and chief strategist of Nourish Food Marketing. “Pet food sales [in grocery] have been growing with COVID, but grocers could be doing even more.” McArthur notes there’s been a shift in what pet owners feed their cats and dogs. “Only 13% of dog owners exclusively feed their dog kibble or canned pet food, and the number for cats is 32%,” she says, citing a 2020 University of Guelph study. “So, there are needs that obviously canned and dry food isn’t filling.” McArthur adds that the trends driving pet food are the same as those driving human food products—so consumers are looking for pet products made with higher-quality ingredients, no additives, and a small environmental “paw” print. Northern Biscuit Bakery has been producing all-natural dog biscuits made with 64 CANADIAN GROCER || May 2021
high-quality, human-grade ingredients for almost 30 years. “The pet market has exploded,” says co-founder and president Patty Grillo. “Everybody’s getting a dog now, especially with the pandemic. And they’re really health conscious.” Grillo says the Concord, Ont.-based company tries “to mimic what the human food trends are,” to meet consumer demand for natural products, local production and environmentally-friendly packaging. “You’d be surprised how many people are looking for compostable packaging.” The company offers a wide variety of its dog biscuits under the Northern Biscuit brand, and recently launched a line specifically for grocery called Williwaw. Packaged in a fully compostable 340gram bag, the new brand is available in four varieties at a number of Sobeys locations across Ontario. To help merchandise Williwaw, Northern produced stackable displays that can be put in different areas of the store, with signage indicating that the products are locally made. Other trends in pet food focus on raw, protein, botanicals and digestibility, and McArthur says these items “tend to be either functional or indulgent, with an overall premiumization trend within treats as well.” Justin Schley, vice-president and CFO at B.C. grocery retailer Quality Foods, agrees, noting “pet food
is definitely growing—we’re selling more than we would in a non-pandemic environment. And people are asking for local and premium, so it’s something we’ll continue to explore.” Mark Venton, national sales manager for Big Country Raw, says “raw diets are a massive trend that’s just at the early stages of adoption, so planning for freezer space ASAP to be in front of this innovation is a huge opportunity for traditional grocery.” He adds that the majority of pet parents “expect to find new, innovative products in pet specialty stores, so traditional retail stores still have a lot work to do in this category. Grocery is selling the lowest-margin pet foods and missing the high-margin items pet specialty sells.” Big Country Raw has raw items for dogs and cats in various formats including frozen bone broth, cooked and dehydrated meals, and fresh raw protein blends. “Our best-selling products are our easyto-use, low-price items—our Grab and Go products,” says Venton. “The other huge growth is in raw bones and toppers like sardines, goat’s milk and eggs.” The increasingly blurred lines between human products and premium pet treats has even led to the launch of frozen treats like Ben & Jerry’s non-dairy Doggy Desserts, made with the same ingredients as their human non-dairy products. “The interesting thing is they’re shelving it in the same freezer section, so when people go to treat themselves they can also treat their pet,” says McArthur. That’s also why Cargill’s new butcher- quality dog treat brand, The Chompery, is available in the meat aisle at grocery. “Consumers are likely to grab pet treats as an impulse buy,” says Kelsie Reuter, marketing manager for Cargill Protein, meaning “grocers should consider ways to promote pet treats throughout the store.” The Chompery provides grocers with display racks that hold an assortment of 12 products such as Beef Rib Bones, Beef Lung Protein Bites, and Bully Sticks. As well as adding signage and trying product placement beyond the pet aisle, McArthur recommends grocers boost online sales with auto-subscription models, and consider a re-fresh of private-label pet products. “Pet parents have high degrees of loyalty in products,” she says. “So grocers really have to get ahead of this, because when the world starts opening up again the question will be, how will you solidify the gains you’ve made?”
GETTY IMAGES/CLARKANDCOMPANY
Aisles
