NONFOODS
Pet Trends
Worthy of Attention BO WORTHY’S NE W BIRDIE & LOUIE BR AND AIMS TO SHAKE UP PE T FOOD BY SOURCING INGREDIENTS CLOSER TO HOME. By Gina Acosta hen it comes to trends in the pet food aisle, new products looking to elevate the dining experience for consumers’ furry friends are popping up frequently. Plantbased, artisanal, holistic and fresh are just a few of the attributes that a new generation of pet parents are seeking as pet adoption and spending keeps rising, kick-started by the pandemic. According to the ASPCA, one in five American households has acquired a dog or cat since the beginning of the COVID-19 crisis. Millennials and Gen Z make up 53% of those numbers. As a result, spending on pets is on the rise, growing 19.3% to $123 billion last year, and it’s anticipated to grow 10% annually until 2026. And Gen Z and Millennial pet owners are likely to spend more on their pets. One of the top attributes that pet parents are looking for is quality sourcing. Pet owners want to know where the ingredients for a dog or cat food are sourced, the cultivation standards,
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country of origin, etc. They also want to know that they can count on finding the product on the shelf when they need it, no matter how many deadly viruses or geopolitical conflicts may arise. Those are just a few of the reasons that Bo Worthy, who owns Eclectic, Ala.-based Worthy Promotional Products, is launching a new cat and dog food brand. “Over the past year, I began to notice there was a little less cat food on the shelf, and we started getting phone calls from grocers asking if we could do a pet food,” Worthy recounts. So Worthy got on a plane to South America. “We ended up in Monte, which is considered the tuna capital of the world,” he continues. “It’s on the coast of Ecuador, right at the equator. And it’s where the southern cool currents come up from Chile and Peru, and the northern warm currents come in from Mexico and the Northern Pacific. It’s just great fishing waters.” Worthy and his son quickly put a deal together to source tuna for a new pet food line called Birdie & Louie.
