Pet food brand readies Bt200m plan for growth

The company, with its partners, aims to increase its distribution channels to gain more customers while focusing on “proactive digital marketing orientation” is also included in order to reach 15 per cent growth in a pet food market worth Bt1.3 billion.
Chadon Suwanarit, managing director of Royal Canin (Thailand) Co Ltd, said the company was established in 1967 by French veterinarian Jean Cathary, with the French brand entering the Thai market in 2005.
 “The company provides all dogs and cats in this world with accessibility to the best nutritional diets from the first to the last meals of their lives, makes Royal Canin different from other competitors in the market,” Chadon said.
“Royal Canin also believes that it doesn't take many years for technology in animal food production to develop or even to resemble each other. However, what cannot be imitated are the concept and inspiration in developing diets for pets by Royal Canin and this comes down to two key points.
“The first is knowledge and respect, which involves research and study on the natural behaviours of dogs and cats prior to developing each diet formula,” Chadon said. “The second is the concept of Dogs and Cats First. The concept focuses on developing each diet formula to be the most appropriate to the nature of dogs and cats from our research and development team, including scientific innovative diet formulas proven for the outcomes by dogs and cats themselves, as well as keeping up with standard production control worldwide.”
Chadon said the market overview for pet food products in Thailand is around Bt2.5 billion and Bt2.6 billion. 
“The market value of pet food itself is worth more than Bt1.3 million or the ratio is around 45 per cent of the total value of pet's product market,” Chadon said. 
There are more than 20 brands for both imported and domestic pet food in Thailand and this is increasing in line with an increase in the number of pets over the past five years, Chadon said. In 2017, there were about 12 million cats and dogs in Thailand, with 8 millions being dogs.
“Therefore, growth of not less than 5 per cent for dog and cat food is expected in 2018, with a higher ratio for cat food,” Chadon said.
“The growth opportunity for dog and cat food business will keep continuing as a result of the key factor, low accessibility or calories conversion to pet food in the Thai market, with around 22.4 per cent for dog food and 46.7 per cent for cat food. 
“The company plans to expand the market for health nutrition diet for dogs and cats by providing the correct knowledge and understanding to pet owners, as well as to increase distribution channels to customers for continuous growth and to focus on proactive marketing using digital marketing orientation in order to support the growth of the market in the future.”
With Royal Canin's 50th anniversary, the company plans to strengthen its efforts to provide good customer relationship management through marketing activities and channels to suit pet owners’ lifestyles.
 “The company also sees the importance of store development in order to have business competition ability, as well as product knowhow training for product advisers to have knowledge and understanding to be able to recommend proper product to pet owners correctly,” Chadon said.
Chadon also Bt200 million budget will be used to create brand awareness and the quality of the brand in order to introduce customers to the product. “Moreover, integrated marketing communication (IMC) will be emphasised by presentation via various social media regularly.
“The purpose is to educate pet owners to have knowledge and understand on appropriate nutrition and diet for dogs and cats since they are very different from human, and to transform to pet food product instead of self-prepared food. The purpose is to accelerate the company's growth to at least 15 per cent. In the past five years, the growth of the company has been more than 20 per cent in average.”
The key factors on the continuous growth of dog and cat food market is because the behavior of new generation have changed over social conditions and lifestyle such as slower and lower rate of marriage, lower rate of parenthood, higher single status, more single family living or single living orientation, including the increment of senior society. These are the factors for people to own more dogs or cats and replace them as friends or children. At the same time, pet owners have been more awared on their pet well beings and have more purchasing ability in order to spend more on their pets, Chadon said.