“Royal Canin” prepares to be Number 1 In dog and cat food through Specialty Trade Channel next year

“Royal Canin”, the manufacturer and distributor of dog and cat food from France, is ready to become the leader in dog and cat health nutrition market via Specialty Trade Channel in Thailand next year. Thai pet food market has an increasing trend every year from rising demands of pet owners. The company, therefore, moves forward to educate about the nutritional diets for pets – which nowadays increasingly become family companions, while developing trade partners with a target to gain 12% growth in sales this year. 

DVM. Chadon Suwanarit, Managing Director of Royal Canin (Thailand) Co., Ltd., the leader of dog and cat health nutrition under “Royal Canin” brand from France, said the behavior of Thai people in having pets had shifted from the past when the animals only meant to help watch over the houses or catch the rats. Currently, pets become companions, well-cared like a family member. In order to respond to this trend which dogs and cats should be taken care properly to ensure their healthiness, the company has focused in the nutritional issue by educating dog and cat lovers via every channel such as veterinary clinics, breeders, pet shops and online platforms. Recently, the company has developed an application, named “Royal Canin Club”, to help dog and cat owners understand how to take better care of their pets. In the application, there will be many useful knowledge based on cats and dogs’ ages, and breeds by nutritionists and veterinarians. Once download and register, a new member of Royal Canin Club will receive a complementary gift set, food samples and discount coupons. There will be many fun activities, including point collection, and reward redemption on products and services. 

Mr. Chadon said that overall market value of dog and cat food was estimated to be over 15 billion baht with local manufacturers and importers of more than 30 brands. The market could be categorized into two groups based on the marketing and distribution channels. Firstly, the Grocery and Modern Trade Channel (convenience stores and supermarkets) commanded 40% of the market share with growth rate of 1.2% last year. Secondly, the Specialty Trade Channel (pet food shops, veterinary clinics and breeders) controlled the rest of 60% with the growth rate of 7.3% last year. Royal Canin had ranked the third in overall market but stayed at the second in the Specialty Trade Channel. The company expected to be at the top of Specialty Trade Channel next year, as supported by the organic growth of dog and cat food markets, as more people having dogs and cats as family companions. It is expected that the market for dog and cat diets will grow by 5% next year, with the higher growth projected in cat food. Currently, Thailand has a total of 12 million dogs and cats kept as family companions, 8 million of which were dogs and the rest of 4 million were cats. 

Regarding the company’s sales, Royal Canin (Thailand) is confident to achieve the target sales of 2 billion baht in 2019, or 12% growth from 1.8 billion baht in previous year. The company plans to expand the nutrition diets for dogs and cats by educating and establishing the correct understanding among pet owners and adds more marketing and distributing channels. The company has marketed the products via pet shops (70%), veterinary clinics (25%), breeders (3%) and another 2% via e-commerce, a new marketing channel added since late last year in order to expand the customer base.

Meanwhile, “Royal Canin” has emphasized the importance of establishing good relationship with pet owners through marketing activities and sale channels that suit their behavior. The company will participate in the Pet Expo 2019, which will be organized during 30th May to 2nd June, 2019 at Bangkok International Trade & Exhibition Center (Bitec). The company will join the Expo under the theme “Take Your Pet to the Vet”, offering opportunities for pet owners to bring their pets to get basic health check-up. Royal Canin will open a pop-up veterinary clinic where professional veterinarians will provide the service free of charge. They will also be ready to educate the public about right nutrition for pets. More than 200 formulas of Royal Canin dog and cat foods will also be available at special price with limited edition gifts. 

Royal Canin in France has been in operation for over 50 years since French veterinarian Monsieur Jean Cathary founded the company in 1968 as he realized about the significance of nutrition to the health of pets. Royal Canin products have been introduced to Thai market since 2005. The company has differentiated itself by emphasizing that all dogs and cats should be able to access to best nutrition from the first to the last meal in their lives. It also focuses on two main subjects. Firstly, knowledge comes along with love as natural behavior of dogs and cats will be studied before the development of food formulas. Secondly, dogs and cats are at the central point of the formula development to create diets best suit the animals’ nature. Dogs and cats are the core for the company’s research and development as well as its science-based innovation. Moreover, its production standard from all corners of the world has also been strictly supervised.