PET Food Processing - June 2019 - 12

TRENDS

"Other than the cost of goods, house brands
also need to spend money on marketing
their products, educating consumers
about their brand and discounting
further to attract new consumers."
Lynn Lye, Chewy

Amazon promotes that "real meat
is the number one ingredient" of its
house brand of pet food called Wag.
Amazon.com

"All of these tie into the final margins,
which could take months and months to
break even."
Heather Govea, vice president, private brands,
C.J. Foods Inc., Bern, Kansas, says the real benefit of
premium house brands for retailers is a unique brand
and pet parent experience found only in their outlets.
"Modern private brands are focused on building true
brands that just happened to be owned by the retailer,"
she says. "These brands seek to develop a consumer connection that is delivered through both a nutritional philosophy and brand equity."
The key for private brands' success is scaling for volume and optimizing the logistical footprint, Govea says.
"Historically, both of these are typically found through
larger retail outlets," she adds. "While big-box retailers certainly have an advantage in scale, there are an
increasing number of independent retailers that are
consolidating either in ownership or leveraging buying
power that could certainly provide the outlet for some
powerful private brands in the future."
Alternatively, Mills says it's difficult for independent
pet stores and small independent chains to have premium house brands because of the cost associated with
package design and different minimum order quantities
from package vendors.

Trends in premium house brands
The premium pet food category used to only be premium kibble, canned pet food or raw frozen pet food,
says Lye. Now it includes freeze-dried, dehydrated, rawinfused kibble, gently cooked, sous-vide, refrigerated
and frozen options, she says. "Products are not only
grain-free and made with whole ingredients, you will
also see animals raised without antibiotics, seafood with

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PET FOOD PROCESSING | June 2019 | www.petfoodprocessing.net

sustainable ratings, and five-step animal welfare rating
marketing claims being used," Lye says.
The rise of many "no's" are also increasing - no corn,
no wheat, no soy, no added gluten, no artificial flavors,
no artificial colors, no artificial preservatives, no filler
and no by-products, she says. "Consumers are also demanding much higher standards in food safety due to
the previous years of recalls on unsafe products, so manufacturers are going one step further by implementing
high-pressure processing and irradiation processes to
their products," Lye says.
Mills says trends in premium pet foods he's seen
include the use of exotic proteins and grains, inclusion
of fruits and vegetables, and preparations such as slowcooking, air-drying and cold-pressing.
Govea points out that trends in the private-brand
pet food sector are the same across the entire category,
whether it's a national brand or a retail house brand.
"Humanization, premiumization and e-commerce continue to drive consumers, and even more so in our millennial consumer," she says. "This is pushing the borders
of the private-brand segment further than ever and we
are continuing to see a greater acceptance for an elevated
private brands experience further up the value chain."

Future of premium house brands
House-brand pet food is definitely here to stay, and the
growth is limitless, says Lye. "House-brand pet foods
will need to innovate further to expand their selection and offer additional benefits such as pet food with
natural holistic functionality, pet food with immunity
boost added to it, more caloric-dense pet food, more
sustainable carbon-neutral packaging and even offering a selection of sustainable alternative animal proteins such as crickets, black larva fly, Asian carp or
lab-grown meat."
Govea says there will continue to be a more educated
pet food consumer across the entire space. "With the
recent expansion of super-premium brands to mass
segments, this is going to create a more educated
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