Page 3 - PET worldwide issue 04/2022

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Exciting times

We live in exciting and challenging times: the tries in recent months. In part, however, this is also
“new normal”, as it is termed by the motto of this due to the fact that pet owners have invested so
year’s International Pet Conference. There will sure- much in scratching posts, leashes and beds in the
ly be no lack of conversation topics for the confer- last year that market saturation has occurred,
ence delegates when they meet in Bologna on 11 which has little to do with the current crisis. In the
and 12 October: supply bottlenecks, energy supply case of high-priced foods, one or two consumers
problems, raw material shortages, climate change, may indeed switch to another high-quality, but mar-
ginally cheaper pet food. It is also reported from the
USA, where inflation rates have climbed into double
figures, that some pet owners are increasingly opt-
ing to buy smaller packs of their favoured super-
premium and premium pet food. There are no re-
cognisable indications that the majority of pet own-
ers are suddenly migrating to cheap food, nor is
any trend towards generally trading down foresee-
able with regard to pet products. Consumers are
doubtless keeping a closer eye on prices again at
the moment, however. Will this prompt them to buy
online or from discount stores more frequently?
This does not have to be the case if pet stores take
high inflation rates and growing uncertainty for pet the increased price sensitivity of their customers in-
owners. All these issues are currently occupying to greater account in their calculations. The compe-
people’s minds, while the coronavirus pandemic is tence of specialist retailers in dispensing advice
also far from completely over. continues to be valued highly by customers. If the
The last few decades have witnessed a number pet product trade succeeds in maintaining its pro-
of major crises. The most recent of these was the file as an attractive sales channel in the future, also
financial crisis of 2008, with effects that reverber- with the aid of digital technology, its importance in
ated across the globe. For the most part, the pet the market might even be augmented further.
supplies sector proved relatively stable and cap-
able of weathering those tough times. This time
around, the varied nature of the crises facing us
has challenged not only consumers but industry as
a whole. Nevertheless, many factors suggest that
the pet sector will once again cope better with the Ralf Majer-Abele
current challenges than many other branches of
the economy.
The much-discussed reticence of consumers to Ralf Majer-Abele
buy is only perceptible in a few instances at the mo-
ment when it comes to pet products. It is experi- Phone +49/72 43/575-230
enced most noticeably with regard to accessories, r.majer-abele@daehne.de
sales of which have declined slightly in many coun-

PET worldwide 4|2022 3

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