Driving pet store sales

Martin Spengler, Managing Director, Mera Petfood: Alternative sources of protein, such as vegetarian formulations or insects, for example, are still a niche, but demand is increasing.

Aspects such as vegan dog food are also on the rise. We are seeing, too, that products from the fresh cooked category in their various manifestations are garnering more attention.

Health is a key topic for us. We are seeing that dog owners are increasingly developing an awareness of the physical and mental constitution of their pets and want to give them the healthiest possible nutrition. Our products address this requirement, because we only use the ingredients a dog needs for an active and fulfilled life. With treats in particular, the health aspect is becoming ever more important for customers. Nutritional supplements and treats are product segments that are consequently becoming increasingly merged into a new “healthy snacking category”.

Lea Drusio, Corporate Communications Director, Central Region, Nestlé Purina Petcare: Products containing high-quality, natural ingredients and tailored to the individual needs of our four-legged companions are still on trend. We cater to this trend with our Beneful and Purina One Mini brands. The latter has been specially developed for the individual needs of smaller dog breeds. In the dog treat category, we are satisfying the trend with the Adventuros premium range, for instance, consisting of six different treats characterised by special protein sources such as buffalo and deer, as well as natural ingredients.

Martin Spengler: This year, the burden imposed by energy, logistics and rising staff costs poses a major challenge for a medium-sized company. We maintain long-standing partnerships with our suppliers and thereby ensure that we have sufficient raw material availability. To secure this situation and maintain a long-term delivery capability, we also take higher purchasing costs into account. As an energy-intensive sector, high energy costs are hitting us especially hard. In the logistics field, we try to optimise transport routes through full utilisation of vehicles and intelligent route planning so as to prevent costs from rising immeasurably.

Lea Drusio: Even if raw material availability has improved on the whole and…