The industry is re-establishing itself

The consolidation process in the pet industry continues undeterred into the new year. This is evident by the many takeovers in all parts of the world in recent weeks. 
There are many reasons for acquisitions. In many cases, large and medium-sized companies want to strengthen their market position by taking over smaller competitors. The acquired companies are often niche suppliers whose product range can constructively round off that of larger companies. However, powerful financial investors who are looking for attractive investment opportunities are also often behind the acquisitions. For the takeover candidate, on the other hand, a takeover by a financially strong partner offers a welcome opportunity to give their expansion, such as into other countries, a strong boost.
In the USA, it is noticeable that takeovers in the fast-growing pet health sector have increased especially rapidly. The Mars group in particular is extremely active in this segment. After the pet food manufacturer took over more than 800 veterinary hospitals in the USA and Canada last year through the purchase of VCA, Mars has now acquired Genoscoper Laboratories, a specialist in molecular diagnostics for companion animals. While the pet health market in the USA and Canada is determined by only a few chains of veterinary clinics, a completely different, much more fragmented structure reigns in Europe, with many independently operated clinics. It will be interesting to see if this situation will change in the next few years. In any case, a consolidation of the market in Europe is likely to take even longer than in North America.
An interesting sector, in which acquisitions and mergers are likely to particularly strongly change the market structure in the next few years, is online trade. In contrast to the traditional stationary trade, this is showing high growth rates all over the world. This is continuously attracting new players and offers large stationary players the opportunity to take over one or two online shops in the medium and long term. 

How something like this works has been demonstrated by the leading US specialist trade chain PetSmart, who took over Chewy, the country's largest online retailer. In the pet industry in Europe, Zooplus is currently the only really strong online shop operator…