News

The Kent Nutrition Group (KNG) want to work more closely together with their British sales partner in distributing their cat litter brand "World's Best Cat Litter" in Europe. Therefore MPM Products, owner of the pet food brand "Applaws", is immediately taking over the distribution of "World's Best Cat Litter" in Europe. Woko Pet Supplies has received the rights to the distribution of "World's Best Cat Litter" in Germany and Austria. "As a result of these changes the current sales and marketing activities of the Kent Nutrition Group have ceased", the company explained.

Flexi USA has been renamed Pet Adventures Worldwide (PAW), according to the American pet industry magazine Pet Business. This is a result of the move by the German-based company Flexi International to terminate its business relationship with Flexi USA. The manufacturer of retractable leashes will now sell its products directly in the US market (as already reported). Pet Adventures Worldwide will now pursue new paths to success, according to president Ulrich Wuebker. The company has already launched two new product brands: Alcott, a collection of adventure dog accessory products, and Uncle Ulrick's, a line of chicken and beef jerky and sweet potato treats.

The French retailer Gamm Vert with over 1 000 stores and sales in excess of € 1 bn aims to take over the garden centre chains Delbard (55 stores) and Jardinerie du Terroir (101 outlets). The company, which claims to lead the garden segment in the home improvement market, has begun talks to this end with the group Nalod's, which owns Delbard and Jardinerie du Terroir. Gamm Vert believes the acquisition of the two will round off its portfolio satisfactorily, according to Jean-Pierre Dassieu, general director of Gamm Vert, in an interview with the French publication Franchise-Magazine.

Birth rates in the US have fallen from nearly 70 per 1 000 women in 2007 to under 63 last year, according to the Australian Internet newsletter Petnews.com.au. American women gave birth to almost 400 000 fewer babies in 2013 than they did six years before. The decline has occurred exclusively among 15- to 29-year-olds.
Meanwhile, the ownership of small dogs - that is, pets weighing no more than 9 kg - is going in the opposite direction. Americans have been buying more and more small dogs each year since 1999. The population of little canines more than…