Nutro in freefall across Europe 

It’s only two years ago that the American pet food manufacturer Nutro celebrated its 80th anniversary. The company was riding high and the importance of the “Nutro” super-premium brand was growing steadily in the pet supplies trade. But true to the motto “What goes up, must come down”, the first cracks then started to appear in the pristine image that the industry has cherished for years of the Californian pet food manufacturer. In March 2007, Nutro was listed as a company affected by the Menu Foods recall, which sent shock waves through the American pet food industry. Although only a few products were affected, the damage done to the company’s profile during the long-running pet food scandal in the USA was greater than the lost sales revenue.  Two months later, in May 2007, it was announced that Nutro had been acquired by the Mars Group. This change of ownership proved to be a bitter disappointment to anyone believing that the pet food brand would continue to grow under the aegis of its strong parent company. The very first move by the new owner – parting company with the long-standing distributors that had made “Nutro” a strong brand in their countries in the first place – met with incomprehension in the sector.  As Mars was prevented by antitrust legislation from distributing Nutro in Germany and Austria, Inter-Pet AG, probably the strongest Nutro distributor in Europe, would have been able to carry on supplying Nutro to the pet supplies trade in Germany. Since October, however, deliveries of the product to Europe have been patchy and late in arriving. By February the situation had deteriorated so drastically that Nutro was scarcely obtainable anywhere in Europe. Inter-Pet AG decided shortly afterwards to throw in the towel and informed its customers that the company would cease distribution of the super-premium brand on 15 March.The damage suffered by Nutro as a result of the serious supply shortages in Europe is huge. Many pet supplies retailers who gave the brand their full support hitherto have been angered by the actions of the management of the US group and have signalled their intention to switch their customers to other brands in future. Others are trying to obtain supplies from elsewhere to meet customer demand. It would be regrettable if the demise of the “Nutro” brand in Europe could not be halted; the food enjoys an outstanding reputation and is extremely popular with many dog and cat owners, in spite of its high price at the till. But to…