Differing preferences

Rosyslaw Vovk co-founded Kormotech with his father and sister in 2003 and served for the past 12 years as CEO. During this time, Vovk has brought Kormotech into the top 50 global pet food manufacturers, achieving an annual turnover of 162.7 m dollars and expanding into 51 markets. He leads a team of over 1,500 employees operating worldwide.

Kormotech is a global family-owned company with Ukrainian roots, specializing in high-quality pet food. The company produces cat and dog food and has three production facilities located in Ukraine and Lithuania.

How have pet owners’ expectations changed in recent years — especially regarding quality, transparency, and functionality of pet food?

People choose food for their cats and dogs as carefully as they do for themselves — they look for familiar ingredients and distrust formulas that resemble a list of chemical terms.

Pet parents expect the product to deliver additional health benefits — especially in the premium and super-premium segments. For example, supporting digestion, the immune system, joint health, or skin condition. Therefore, people increasingly pay attention to the presence of relevant ingredients such as probiotics, antioxidants, and other supplements or superfoods.

The manufacturer’s challenge is not only to incorporate these ingredients, but also to clearly communicate their benefits and effects. Transparent communication is essential today if you want consumers to trust you.

At Kormotech, we organize factory tours several times a month for clients and partners, where they can see firsthand how and from what our products are made.

How do you collect feedback from consumers, and how does it influence product development?

We use two types of research — qualitative, where we conduct in-depth interviews, and quantitative, to ensure that our findings reflect the opinion of a broader audience.

The goal of in-depth interviews is to understand the needs that drive people to choose our products. If research shows that a brand does not resonate with the needs of its target segment, we either modify the product or develop a new brand that meets the expectations of that audience.

For example, during our research, we discovered a segment of pet parents who are “indulgers” — they want not just to feed their pets but to provide a new experience and express their love. Our portfolio did not include a product addressing…