A market undergoing structural change

The French garden centre chain Jardiland is the first foreign speciality retail chain to have become established in Spain and is already operating seven stores there. Another French garden centre group, Système V, followed suit at the end of last October and opened its first store under the "el Jardin" banner in Aranjuez near Madrid. Pet's Place, the Dutch speciality chain, also launched in Spain last year, and Europe's biggest speciality operator Fressnapf has announced that it intends to open its first store in Spain by the end of this year. In a market characterized predominantly by small pet shops hitherto, this development could cause far-reaching changes.The entry of mainly French hypermarket chains into the Spanish supermarket business has thrown the sector into considerable confusion. For the pet product market, this has had the result that the food retailing segment, which previously accounted for slightly less than 40 per cent of overall sales, has been adding market share over the last few years. According to current data, the supermarkets currently account for 44 per cent of the overall market. Other distribution channels like the speciality pet trade, garden centres and veterinarians still retain the major share.Market figures from Euromonitor International reveal that the Spanish pet product market had a total volume of € 867.2 mio in 2005, compared with € 827.8 mio the previous year. Dog and cat food, bringing in € 512.9 mio in 2005, accounted for the bulk of this. Food for other types of pets generated € 82.2 mio in sales, compared with € 79.1 mio in 2004. Care products and accessories also feature prominently in the Spanish market with a volume of € 272.1 mio.Spain is traditionally a typical dry food market. Roughly 73 per cent of all dog food purchased there is dry food, and wet food is of negligible significance. The cat food market has changed since 1999: whereas wet food had a 53 per cent share of the market until then, this share has declined to less than 40 per cent now. The canned food segment has shrunk markedly, while the importance of single-serve products has increased considerably.The Spanish company Affinity Pet Care is the clear market leader in pet food, followed by Nestlé Purina Pet Care and - some way behind - Masterfoods. If the accessory segment is also taken into consideration, then the top slot in the Spanish market goes to Nestlé Purina Pet Care, the only one of the "top three" active in this segment. The leading…