😱 INR 20 Cr for a Dog?!
From Mankind Pharma to Digit Insurance, everyone is looking to serve one master: pets! From startups to legacy brands, everyone wants a piece of this pie. Why? Let's dive deeper...
A strange headline caught our attention recently:
No matter how adorable the dog, Rs. 20 Cr is an insane amount to pay for it.
And this insane love for dogs made us curious about the growing pet industry in India.
Let's dig deeper…
🔢 Numbers, Please
3 crore dogs have been adopted in India till date (up from 1.25 crores in 2014).
Rs. 4,000 per month is being spent by pet parents on their pets' food, grooming, accessories, etc.
And the pet care market in India is worth Rs. 7,780 crores. Of this pet food has a 63% market share and accessories, grooming, toys and other services form the rest 37%.
But why is this market growing so fast?
🕵️ Reasons Pets Have Grown Popular
There are several reasons for this growing popularity of pets:
pandemic induced loneliness
increase in nuclear families (52%+ share of total households)
increase in social media pet influencers and parents
Interestingly, dogs have the highest heart-share amongst pet animals in India.
And because of this high heart-share, when we looked up dog food brands on Amazon we found 30,000 search results for dog foods. Huge number. "Rice" has 1/5th (6,000) results.
Another interesting insight:
Pedigree, which is owned by Mars, is spending crazy amounts on Amazon banner and CPC ads, giving it a very high visibility. Tough competition for other brands?
And a third insight:
MeatUp and Drools are rising challengers to Pedigree - interestingly, both have the same parent company (IB Group)!
However, what surprised us the most was that even though so many brands exist 50-55% of pet food is imported! Why? Because:
customers don't trust local brands, feel low-quality ingredients are used, and
entrepreneurs shy away as:
high competition, with deep-pocketed players,
no pricing power and low net margins
To solve for trust, we found Drools' strategy to be very interesting: tying up with Indian celebs.
It has tied up with celebrities like Hrithik Roshan, Kareena Kapoor, Ananya Pandey and Samantha Ruth Prabhu.
Now, enough about food. Let's look at what else the petcare industry has in store…
🐶 The Exciting Pet Care Industry
Petcare now has everything ranging from bowls to stop your pets from eating too fast to DNA tests that can help detect diseases in their early stages.
Here are a few startups and companies that we found interesting:
Dedicated marketplaces for pet supplies:
Heads Up for Tails (backed by Sequoia and Kalaari)
Supertails (backed by Deepika Padukone)
Pet Insurance:
Yes, due to the high costs of veterinary service, pet insurance is a growing industry.
In fact, Future Generali sold over 25,000 pet insurance policies in 3 months last year.
Here are some companies that provide pet insurance:
Digit Insurance
Bajaj Allianz
Future Generali
Pet services:
Grooming, Training, Walking services:
For Furs
Snouters
Healthcare, Wellness
Urban Animal
Fur Ball Story
Hotels, stays
Critterati (a luxury resort for pets)
Pawfect
PetCart
By now, you would mostly be convinced how crazy this space is becoming!
With INR 20 crore dogs and luxury hotels for pets, India is becoming a HOT market!
And legacy brands don't want to miss out…
⚡How Legacy Brands are Entering this Space
The growth potential has convinced larger brands to seriously focus on this segment. Their growth strategy?
Acquire / invest in existing brands: Emami and Nestle are following this strategy. Emami acquired a 30% stake in Fur Ball Story, whereas Nestle acquired Purina Pet Foods.
Building in-house brands: This is the strategy that Mankind Pharma and Himalaya are following. They both have their own pet food brands.
But with a global recession knocking on our doors and increasing costs of living, some have started abandoning their pets.
So, how will this industry perform in the coming years?
Additionally, we realised that in India, more than "pets", it's common to own a cow or goat! Interestingly, these are not seen as traditional pets by the western world.
What do you think - Should cows, buffalos, goats and sheep be considered as pets?
Let us know if you liked today's piece. If you did, please share this with your friends, and get them to subscribe! :)
See you tomorrow, smarty! 🤓
If you are coming here for the very first time: Join us on WhatsApp and never miss an update! 👇