The sector meets in Barcelona

An "exciting journey across Europe with the leading retail groups" was how Ralf Majer-Abele, managing editor of PET worldwide, introduced the International Pet Conference, which was staged in the Catalan capital in mid-October.
High expectations were set by the very first presentation of the day when Katy Witham, senior food and drink analyst at Mintel, spoke of new international trends in the pet business. She reported that Germany, the US and the UK above all were driving the development of new products, accounting for 25 per cent of the global market. Katy Witham also examined buyer behaviour in this context, revealing that 81 per cent of British pet owners, 72 per cent of German owners and 69 per cent of Spanish pet owners treated their pets as children. This was a global trend, she continued, that would spur further growth in the pet supplies sector.
Torsten Toeller, founder and chairman of Fressnapf, introduced the topic of speciality retail groups. He made it clear to the assembled delegates that his hunger for growth was still strong, even after 26 years in the business. Toeller presented impressive figures to illustrate the development of his pet supplies chain, adding that Spain also continued to feature in his expansion plans. "Everything we do is aimed at making life better and easier for pets and their owners," he said, summarising the objectives of his work. He outlined the goals targeted for completion by 2020, such as the opening of 50 new stores internationally and doubling the number of centrally owned stores.
The next big player from the international pet supplies scene to speak was Dusan Placek from the Czech Republic. Placek operates in a number of eastern European countries and said that he would have over 200 stores up and running in 2017. The rent on retail areas would more than halve in the near future, enabling rapid expansion to take place, and not just in the pet sector. Placek said that his expansion plans focused in particular on Russia, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Poland.
From multinational companies to regional players: Spain's leading pet store chain is Kiwoko, currently running 82 outlets and with sales amounting to around € 72 mio. CEO Alvaro Gutierrez set out his two-year plan to get to over 100 stores, nearly half of these featuring veterinary clinics and grooming salons. He was able to look back on two years of double-digit growth and believed there was plenty of room for further development in the pet supplies…