Strong on private labels

“In five years we intend to achieve 40 per cent of our overall sales with our private labels,” says Discus director Arjan Kramer. Private labels currently account for between 16 and 18 per cent of sales. In the pet food segment, the company offers three family brands: “Smikkie” covers the economy range for dog and cat food, “Discus” the medium-priced segment in all pet categories and “Frank’s Pro Gold” the premium range. These are complemented by a growing number of accessory products that Discus imports itself from the Far East. The cooperative not only distributes the private labels to its own members, but has also been supplying them to wholesalers and retail groups outside the Netherlands for the last four years. Discus now maintains business contacts with customers in ten European countries in all. In Scandinavia, the Baltic states and Poland in particular, but also in England, France, Greece and Malaysia, its products are meeting with a very favourable response.Discus attaches considerable importance to regular contact between its members. Its name imposes an obligation on it: the name of the company wasn’t actually derived from the fish of that name, but from the word “discussion”. It was thought up by ten pet product dealers who formed their own cooperative back in 1964, on the one hand for a regular exchange of experience relating to day-to-day business, but also to secure better terms from suppliers by increasing their order volumes.By 1990 the group comprised 50 pet product retail enterprises, and the members wanted to keep it at that limit. It was only when the desire arose, due to the growing pressure of competition, to achieve a closer working relationship and also to extend to private labels and the import of products from the Far East that Discus opened its doors once more to new businesses interested in joining. Expansion to 250 enterprises has now been determined as the new limit. Last year Discus grew by another 16 outlets, and a further 14 stores are to be added this year. Virtually all of the now 200-plus stores sell live animals, and quite a few stores also stock less common lines such as equestrian and angling products in addition to the classic product groups. The size of the stores varies considerably, ranging from a retail area of 150 m² to 1 200 m². A close working relationship exists between the Discus specialist retailers distributed across the country. Members meet once a month in the company’s headquarters in Utrecht to…