A year in the pet supplies business

Gunther Eheim, founder and proprietor of the aquatics company Eheim in Deizisau, passed away at the age of 93 at the start of February. The biggest pet store chain in the UK, Pets at Home, acquired the veterinary group Vets4Pets for around £40 mio. The acqui­sition will add a further 93 outlets to the retailer’s 116 veterinary practices. The 13th International Ornamental Fish and Accessories Exhibition and its sister event, Pet Asia, took place at the Sands Expo and Convention Centre in Singapore for the first time. John R. Ranelli was appointed new president and chief executive officer of the American pet product supplier Central Garden & Pet Company. Loic Moutault, CEO of Mars Petcare Germany for five years, assumed a new role within the Mars Group, becoming president of the Mars subsidiary Royal Canin in the Asia/Pacific region. The Belgian pet supplies company Laroy Duvo acquired the Dutch pet food manufacturer Witte Molen. The new combination will result in consolidated sales of approximately € 50 mio. The Global Pet Expo in Orlando was a resounding success with an 8 per cent increase in the exhibition area, a record number of 964 exhibitors and a visitor figure up by around 5 per cent. Casco Europe announced the launch of Casco America. The company supplies the pet industry globally with superior fixtures. Now it is going to bring its store habitats to the USA. In mid-January, Fressnapf Switzerland cut the price of premium pet food permanently for all customers with a loyalty card. The discount is 10 per cent and extends to very well-known brands such as Royal Canin. The US pet food manufacturing industry includes around 200 companies with combined annual revenue of about $47 bn. This was revealed by the new “Pet Food Manufacturing Report” from Research and Markets. Joel Malmstroem, the inventor of the internationally known Back to Nature backgrounds for aquariums, died unexpectedly at just 53 years of age at his factory in Kopparberg, Sweden. The Oase Group from Hörstel/Germany acquired the Italian company Eden. According to Oase, the aim is to consolidate its potential for innovation further and to add the aquatics segment to Oase’s activities. The UK pet market continued to grow in 2012. The overall volume rose by 1 per cent to 1.28 mio t, while the rise in value was 2 per cent to £ 2.19 bn. The two leading Swedish pet supplies chains Arken Zoo and Djurmagazinet merged. Together they operate 110 pet stores and have sales in the order of € 94…