Page 25 - PET worldwide issue 01/2023

What does the sales structure in When did more or less regular product market. For example, one
Ukraine look like? work resume? of the largest pet shops in Ukraine
was destroyed in Mariupol. Our
By our estimates, supermarkets Working with our suppliers, who company was lucky to have an
had a market share of 50 per cent turned out to be very reliable part- intact warehouse, but we com-
in the pre-war market. 10 per cent ners, our team managed to re- pletely lost nine shops. Owing to
of the market was covered by on- store supplies in the food seg- coordinated teamwork, we have
line retailers and 40 per cent by ment in around the third week already rebuilt some of them.
specialist retailers, including of the war. For example, we reopened two
pet shops and veterinary phar- out of three Master Zoo shops in
macists. How did your foreign partners Bucha, which suffered devastating
see the events in Ukraine? damage.
How did the Ukrainian pet mar-
ket change with the outbreak of It was difficult to organise sup- How did pet food prices change
the war? plies. Active hostilities were taking in these six months?
place near our main warehouse
The dynamics in terms of the de- in Rohan in the Kharkiv region, “THE DYNAMICS IN TERMS OF THE DEMAND FOR
mand for pet food and accesso- and we could not gain access to PET FOOD AND ACCESSORIES WAS VERY DIFFERENT
ries was very different in the first it. Our active warehouse, in the IN THE FIRST DAYS AND WEEKS OF THE WAR.“
days and weeks of the war. There meantime, was running out of
was major growth in the demand stock. We understood that we
for pet food. Pet owners needed could not let pet owners down The prices started rising even be-
to relocate but did not have large and food availability was the most fore the war, mainly because of
reserves of food. People faced important thing, so that was what the growing cost of meat feed-
huge shortages. Shops had lim- we put all our efforts into in the stock. Ukrainian consumers
ited stocks and suppliers in the first weeks of the war. saw this upturn as far back as
central and eastern regions could I must give credit to our part- late 2021. The second wave of
not access their warehouses. On ners: European suppliers priori- price increases took place in early
top of that, they could not manage tised the fulfilment of orders from 2022, still before the war. The de-
logistics, as the entire country Ukraine when we were able to re- valuation of our hryvnia currency
stopped. In the second week, we sume work. In addition, they pro- came on top of that, and now the
opened our warehouses in Kharkiv vided humanitarian aid, accom- prices are 30 per cent higher year-
for volunteers who were prepared modating around 100 of our em- on-year. I don’t think we have seen
to come, collect the food and de- ployees with families in Poland, such a price increase in the last
liver it to bomb shelters and metro the Czech Republic and Belgium. five years, but these are cost
stations where people gathered. prices. In retail, we are doing our
The demand for pet carriers You said your main warehouse best to curb the price increase by
was also crazy, but we simply was located close to active hos- sacrificing our margins and nego-
did not have any in stock. There tilities. Did your company or tiating with our foreign partners.
was also strong demand for litter other players in this market suf-
and pads for small dogs. None of fer serious losses? Has it affected demand?
these were available. Our team
did tremendous work to ensure I am not aware of the destruction We saw lower consumption in the
that pet products, including car- of any large warehouses owned second half of 2022, but so far it is
riers and litter, were added to the by our peers. But many private en- hard to tell whether it has to do with
list of critical imports as soon as trepreneurs suffered, which also the rising prices or the decrease
possible. meant a significant loss for the pet in pet numbers due to emigration.

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