A growing market in Austria

The size of the Austrian pet food market is forecast to attain around 603 mio euros in sales this year. This would equate to growth of a solid 6.2 per cent compared with last year. In a country of around 8.9 mio people, the pet population is 3.3 mio.
"I dare say that there are around 650 serious pet product retailers in Austria," says one sector insider, who didn't wish to be named. Currently boasting approximately 175 outlets, retailers Fressnapf and Das Futterhaus dominate the pet store landscape. Garden centre chain Dehner has also increased the number of new stores with large pet departments, however, and now operates 15 stores in Austria. It has also announced another new opening for next spring. The canine specialist Dogstyler is bent on expansion, too, with five stores at present, albeit on smaller retail areas. Perro has 12 stores. Traditional retailer Cats & Pets had to file for insolvency at the end of March, forcing the closure of five outlets. This step was necessitated by the coronavirus crisis and the restrictions this imposed on trade.

During the coronavirus crisis, the pet trade in Austria has been deemed an essential service and stores have been allowed to remain open. The losers here have been the many pet stores located in shopping malls. Most of these are so-called independents. All the surrounding stores were closed, so who was going to shop in them?
"The pandemic has promp­ted many households to acquire a pet," says a spokesperson for the Fressnapf Group. The crisis proved a blessing in disguise for Das Futterhaus Group: "We had chosen Friday 13 March as our 13 per cent discount day," says managing director Norbert Steinwidder. He adds: "When it became known that the first restrictions would be imposed the following Monday, the Friday turned into the busiest day in the history of Das Futterhaus in Austria."

"We have a very dynamic retail scene in which a number of specialist shops in particular are emerging," reports the Fressnapf spokesperson. He underlines the development of several speciality retailers focusing on premium equipment, raw food or even running small bakery shops. An important role is ascribed to traditional shops above all in the…