Page 51 - PET worldwide issue 03/2022
P. 51
Dog food
product categories, it looks like to support the local economy. this trend, many customers con-
wet food is experiencing the Our new dry food factory in Fin- tinue to opt for genuine quality
strongest growth now. However, land is a specific answer to this. products.
all the other edible categories are In addition, having the produc-
performing well too. In the past, tion closer to consumers signifi- 2 The biggest challenges now
consumers fed their dogs and cantly reduces CO emissions, are, on the one hand, the avail-
2
cats either with dry or wet food, because the final goods do not ability and prices of raw mate-
but now mixed feeding is becom- need to be transported long dis- rials and, on the other, the staff
ing very popular. Especially with tances. The humanisation of pets shortages we are facing. We op-
dogs, wet food is used to provide is nothing new, but now we see it erate at the high end of the mar-
variety in feeding and as a topper growing steadily. It is something ket. Ensuring the quality of our
to improve the palatability of dry we keep a close eye on in prod- products is our first priority. It is
food. In treats and chew bones, uct development. sometimes quite a puzzle to get
consumers are moving towards the desired raw materials at the
EU-made products, as manu- Edwin Roelands, CEO of Vobra right time and of the right qual-
facturers are investing more Special Petfoods (Netherlands) ity. Through our years of experi-
and more in production capaci- 1 To provide some context, it is ence, we have built up good re-
ties and new technologies. At good to know that Vobra Special lationships, a large network and
Vafo, for example, we are invest- Petfoods only produces dry food we stand firm, but in these times,
ing in multiple treat and chew for dogs and cats. We focus on it remains a challenge. We have
bone projects. By the end of the the middle and high segments. to take into account long delivery
year, we will be ready to launch We are seeing a big increase in times of raw materials, transport
freeze-dried production and will demand for dietary foods. There but also packaging. This takes a
have substantially expanded our is a lot of movement in the veteri- lot of extra time and puts a lot of
chew bone capacity. nary market and you now notice pressure on our supply chain de-
that various countries are look- partment. In addition, like many
2 As with human food, the pet ing for alternatives to the big es- other markets, we are facing a
food industry is also suffering tablished brands. In that case tight labour market. We recently
from high inflation and limited you have come to the right place built a new factory, a fantastic
availability of raw materials. We at Vobra. Everyone is aware of milestone in Vobra’s history, but
see that there is no stability to be the fact that raw materials are in- it is a challenge to find the right
gained before the Ukraine crisis credibly expensive now. Despite staff in these times.
is resolved. Therefore, we now
need to just wait and see how
the geopolitical situation devel-
ops. We have worked with differ-
ent scenarios to be prepared in
this rapidly changing business
environment. These scenarios
are related to securing energy
and the supply of raw materials.
3 We see that local produc-
tion is one of the biggest trends
alongside humanisation. In Timo Pärssinen, Edwin Roelands, Polina Kosharna,
CEO of Suziria Company Group.
CEO of Vobra Special Petfoods.
CEO of Prima Pet Premium Oy
times of crisis, consumers tend and Vafo Group board member.
to prefer local products and want
PET worldwide 3|2022 51
PWW2022-03_Buch.indb 51 12.07.2022 09:22:18
