Pet Food as Health Food Spurs Impressive Sales Gains – PR Newswire
ROCKVILLE, Md. , Sept. 15, 2022 /PRNewswire/ — U. S. retail sales of dog and cat food approached $40 billion in 2021, up 15% over 2020, according to Packaged Facts’ just-released Pet Meals in the U. S. ( September 2022 ). Over the 2017-2021 period, dog and cat food garnered a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 11%.
Recent inflationary prices for pet food only partially spurred that growth. If the pet food market is not wholly proof against hard times, it’s very hardily resistant, because proven within the wake of COVID.
Double-digit sales development in the pet meals market—large and ostensibly mature as it is —is driven by ongoing product premiumization, if not “superpremiumization. ” This long-running trend is currently epitomized simply by the success of the particular fresh (refrigerated/frozen) pet foods category. Fresh pet food tilts toward human-grade in formulation plus to direct-to-consumer (DTC) product sales in distribution, albeit now trending rapidly into brick-and-mortar as well. This is market revolution, not evolution.
The writing on the wall for fresh pet food is more like a flashing neon Times Square billboard. Refrigerated dog food pioneer Freshpet is projecting 2025 revenue within the $1 billion in order to $1. 25 billion range. Sealing the deal on the future associated with fresh, Mars launched its Cesar New Chef refrigerated dog meals line in December 2021 , and acquired DTC fresh family pet food marketer NomNomNow in January 2022 .
More broadly speaking, “regular” formulation isn’t cutting it with regard to pet foods sales growth. Only half of cat and dog owners use regular/adult formulation pet food, in tandem with heightened pet owner attention to the particular health plus wellness needs of pets.
In this vein, pet food sales are benefiting from a reinvigorated focus on superpremium, science-based diets and treats—partly in the wake of the DCM (Dilated Cardiomyopathy) dog food scare, but more broadly due to increased pet-health consciousness in this age of COVID.
Moreover, Packaged Facts reports that will 38% associated with dog owners plus 36% of cat owners like the idea of dog food backed by scientific research. Hill’s Pet Nutrition, the leader of veterinary clinical nutrition with Hill’s Prescription Diet pet meals, saw full-year net sales for the pet foods rising 14% to $3. 3 billion dollars . An important focus for Hill’s, and the buzzword family pet industry-wide, will be microbiome.
One of most striking aspects of the current wave associated with science-based pet foods, according to Pet Foods in the particular U. H . author Shannon Brown , is usually the overlap of the “natural” and “vet-formulated” themes for item positioning, including within the DTC space. Vet’s Kitchen canine and kitty foods—”Fresh. Wholesome. Vet-Approved”—exemplifies this particular product innovation current.
Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch. com, publishes marketplace intelligence on a wide variety of consumer market topics, including customer demographics plus shopper insights, consumer financial products and services, consumer goods and retailing, and dog products and services. Packed Facts also offers a full range of custom research solutions. Reports can be purchased at our company website and are also available through MarketResearch. com.
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