“An exciting year”

1. How did 2011 turn out for your company? 2. What plans does your company have for this year? The pet supplies sector didn’t escape the recession in some European countries and in the USA entirely unscathed last year. As the following comments show, confidence prevails with regard to the next few months. “Growth in many countries” 1.   2011 was another exciting year for our company, as well the entire pet industry. We realised growth in many countries throughout Europe, both in private labels as well as wild bird feeding. Wild bird feeding has shown a continuous positive trend towards changed consumer behaviour in terms of all-year feeding. But clearly the winter of 2011 in our part of Europe was not as good as the previous year. In addition to this, the raw material markets proved once again to be extremely volatile, resulting in significantly higher prices for raw materials. 2.   VPG will continue to grow together with our business partners, and stick to its business model “buy as you like”. This means focusing on our core business, keeping things simple and transparent, and adding value to the developing business and pet industry together with our customers. At Interzoo we will introduce a totally new range of super-premium dry pet food, including dietetic pet food. One thing that can be revealed now is that it is the perfect combination of a commercial and ideal range of super-premium pet food in a revolutionary new design, which is sure to be noticed. Paul van der Raad Managing Director Vital Petfood Group A/S “Communicate the philosophy more strongly” 1.  For us – as for many companies, no doubt – 2011 was characterised by stagnation in the speciality trade, especially in the first few months of the year. We couldn’t maintain the double-digit growth rates of recent years and saw growth of just 3 per cent in our “Happy Dog” and “Happy Cat” brands in Germany, our domestic market. We achieved positive advances elsewhere abroad. Thanks to strong marketing activity, many markets in Europe developed extremely well, and the bottom line for the year was satisfactory on the whole. The growing volatility in the commodity markets took its toll, making longer-term product costing increasingly difficult. 2.  Interzoo is just around the corner in 2012. We will take advantage of this highlight to optimise our brands further, including the packaging design. We will also present new products for both brands. Here the focus will be on “Happy Cat” in particular…