Return to normality

Terrarium supplies are no longer fast-selling items and the speciality trade needs to do more than just maintain stocks of accessories and pets, some sector experts believe. "Offering terrariums that are fully set up and immediately ready to use with suitable plants and pets is one route to success," says Jürgen Hoch, managing director of the German terrarium company Import-Export Hoch. One American manufacturer told PET worldwide that the speciality trade should make its offering of terrarium pets more "down to earth" so as not to frighten off interested customers with high prices and complicated care requirements. Creatures that are easy to keep, like insects, dwarf geckos like Lygodactylus and tortoises should be much more to the fore in pet store presentations.Modest salesListen to the international pet supplies trade and the talk is of pretty modest sales of terrariums, accessories and reptiles. Take Sweden, for example: "The terrarium business is not a big segment, I would say that it's about 5 per cent for those who carry it," reports Annika Engdahl of the Djurens Värld store chain. And her compatriot Lars Bergkvist, CEO of the pet store chain Arken Zoo, adds: "It is a small segment, less than 0.5 per cent of our business." Only around half of all Arken stores offer reptiles for sale.Terrarium keeping only accounts for two to three per cent of sales at the Portuguese pet store chain Ornimundo, as Patrícia Martins, marketing manager, states. She adds: "However, the terrarium segment is increasing, probably +/- 20 per cent." The wholesale company Placek reports that the terrarium market accounts for roughly ten per cent of sales in branches of the company's own store chain Super Zoo.Focus on petsOne of the key sales drivers in the overall terrarium range is the offering of reptiles. While customer favourites at Ornimundo in Portugal include iguanas, turtles, snakes, dragons and chameleons, the Leopard Gecko and Bearded Dragon feature high on the list at Djurens Värld in Sweden. Turtles, agamas, geckos and frogs are the most popular species in Placek's Super-Zoo outlets in the Czech Republic and come from the company's own breeding units and via its imports. Company spokesperson Adela Kratochvilova stresses that it has enough reptiles to sell and no supply difficulties are known. The same is heard from Lars Bergkvist of Arken Zoo in Sweden.While specimens reach the pet stores via wholesalers and private breeders in Sweden, Ornimundo in Portugal…