Supplying products to over 40 countries  

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When Canina was established in Hamm, North Rhine-Westphalia, in April 1984, the basement bar in the home of proprietor Ingrid Spanke was quickly turned into an office, warehouse and dispatch point. She obtained the first food supplements from a contract manufacturer and added her own label to them. 25 years on, Canina employs over 30 people and distributes its product range, comprising more than 150 items, to 40-plus countries worldwide. Canina products are to be found on the shelves of pet supplies stores almost all over Europe, in China, Singapore, Korea, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The world’s biggest parrot-breeding farm in the Philippines obtains vitamin and mineral mixes from Canina, and the company also manufactures private label products for numerous well-known companies in Germany and abroad. Some of the products introduced into the market 25 years ago are still part of the range today, for example biotin forte, Canivita, brewer’s yeast, algae powder, V25 vitamin tablets and calcium carbonate.
Controlled growth
Demand for Canina products was high from the outset – so high that in the autumn of 1986 Manfred Spanke, the proprietor’s husband, gave up his well-paid job at the bank to join the company. At the start of 1989 Canina had to rent a warehouse and packing area, because by this time the products were being packaged by the company itself. In December of the same year, the sole proprietorship Canina was renamed Canina pharma GmbH, and the company also found its first foreign distribution partner in Austria that year. Following the fall of the Berlin Wall, further distributors were quickly taken on in eastern Europe.
Initially Canina had concentrated exclusively on canine products, but its range was soon extended to include items for cats, birds, small mammals and horses. The segment for insect treatments and care products also became increasingly important. A high point in Canina’s history came at the beginning of 1992, when the state government of North Rhine-Westphalia granted Canina a manufacturing licence. During that year the company leased the building that is now its head office and established a subsidiary, Canina pharma GmbH & Co. KG, which concentrated specifically on the distribution of pharmaceutical products to vets and dispensaries.
In early 2002 Canina bought the premises it had been leasing, also purchasing the adjacent land in 2004, as the company was by…