More than just a necessary evil

In contrast to products in many other merchandise categories, cat litter is difficult to present attractively in the retail trade. The bags are simply piled up on pallets in many pet stores. Positioning of the product is relegated in the main to the rear of the retail area, to an unobtrusive spot, as if one should be ashamed of stocking it.When new varieties are introduced, some retailers at least offer their customers an opportunity to test the efficiency and absorbency of the litter for themselves. Compared with pet food products, however, the manufacturers provide little in the way of imaginative sales support to make the positioning of cat litter products at the point of sale more attractive.Strong private label businessThe reason for this is that in those countries where the cat litter market is already strongly developed, the majority of sales are transacted through private label brands. The cat litter segment is very price-sensitive; high margins are impossible, especially since the transport costs are huge. The cat litter business is a high-volume business too, which reduces the financial opportunities and lessens the enthusiasm of many branded goods manufacturers for investing much in product advertising.According to information from the Private Label Manufacturers Association, the value share of private labels in the United Kingdom is over 58 per cent, while the volume share is over 76 per cent. In Belgium, private label products account for 52.7 per cent of sales and 50.7 per cent of volume. In Italy, on the other hand, the market share of cat litter private labels is comparatively small. Here they account for just 30.5 per cent of sales and 41.9 per cent of tonnage. It should be mentioned in this context, however, that the cat litter market in Italy is extremely underdeveloped compared with other western European countries or even the USA or Japan. Data from the market research institute Euromonitor International indicates that cat litter brought in € 88.6 mio in Italy in 2009. For comparison purposes, the volume of sales in France in 2009 was € 155.8 mio, and in Japan € 167.5 mio.The extent to which a country's cat litter market is developed depends on various factors, the most important being the trend in the cat population in each country. In the United Kingdom, 19 per cent of all households have one or more cats, according to the Petfood Manufacturers Association. This is equivalent to around 8 million cats in all. In spite of this…