Trend towards regional chains gradually growing

In contrast to Germany or France, it’s difficult to detect any structure in the Italian pet product market. Retail chains operating at national level tend to be thin on the ground, even in northern Italy with its strong economy. This is also true even of the normally well organised food retail business. “There are no nationwide chains operating in Italy,” says the manager of a large pet accessory company. Although Coop, Auchan, Carrefour and Interspar are strongly represented in Italy, they are not present in all regions of the country. This doesn’t alter the fact that the supermarkets account for the lion’s share of sales in the pet product segment, with a market share of approx. 70 per cent. The remaining 30 per cent is divided between the speciality pet trade and veterinarians, who occupy an important position as a distribution channel in Italy. The market research company Centro Studi Zoomark puts the number of Italian speciality pet product businesses at around 3 000, most of which have a retail area of up to 200 m² maximum, focus primarily on live animals and offer only a limited range of pet food and accessory products. Many of these are affiliated to one of the nume-rous cooperatives that work more or less successfully together with regard to buying and marketing.
Zoo Planet operates small stores in busy shopping malls.
Companies with a number of branches that have acquired a dominant position in a certain region over the years are also becoming more widespread. Italpet is one example: based in Verona, the company operates nine stores with a retail area of around 500 m² in the Verona-Padua-Vicenza triangle. Two of the stores are operated on a franchise basis and the others as branches. The emphasis is on pet food, which is not normally the case among speciality pet product retailers in Italy. The stores are well-maintained and clearly laid out, with wide aisles between the shelf gondolas, and they have large parking areas for their customers.
Another example is the “Cats & dogs” chain, which has several stores in the Ferrara and Bologna area. This family firm, too, concentrates on pet food. And a further store chain is Zoo Planet with over 10 shops, most of them in Venice or around Padua. Almost all of these stores are located in busy shopping malls with large car parks.
Italpet currently has nine outlets, mainly in the area of Verona, Vicenza and Padua.
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