The market leader in dry dog food, Purina Supercoat, is now available in a convenient 1.5kg pack format.
The pet care category has been growing and 2020 saw an acceleration of that growth, with many Australians seeing lockdown as a great opportunity to adopt a new puppy or kitten.
During this time there has also been a trend towards premiumisation, with pet owners being inclined to spend more on products that they know are made with ingredients that provide better health benefits for their pet.
Coral Grace, Senior Business Manager Independent Grocery & Impulse, Nestlé Purina Petcare, said: “The pet care category has been growing year on year. Pets today are a much-loved part of the family and we see that pet owners are spending more money on their animals.
“COVID-19 has positively impacted the category as well. We saw an acceleration of the category that has sustained due to new pet acquisition. For families with everyone working from home it was a great opportunity to do puppy and kitten training and for anyone that was living alone, they’ve found having a new pet to be great company. This trend increased baselines and now we’re seeing really good growth of about eight per cent on the last MAT.”
Grace also highlighted that it was identified that a staggering 46 per cent of pet purchases were being made as a planned top up purchase.
It’s with this in mind that the brand has decided to launch a new convenient sized 1.5kg pack format to cater to those top up shoppers.
“Because it is the number one selling dry dog brand in the market, we identified a need to be able to provide a smaller pack size to meet the needs of those convenience shoppers. Dry dog food typically comes in a really big bag, which isn’t very convenient for the small format channel,” she said.
Until now, Supercoat has only been available in larger pack formats that are better suited to the grocery channel (3kg, 7.5kg, 12kg, 18kg) and the brand has grown to have a 33 per cent value share of total dry dog food through that channel (Nielsen Scan Grocery Data Australia MAT to 6/12/2020).
“Over the last couple of years, it has become apparent that we’re seeing a need for pet food in the convenience channel,” said Grace.
“We’re hearing from retailers and distributors that people want more relevant pet care products when they are doing their top up shops and that’s why we definitely felt the need to come up with a smaller pack size.”
Grace said that as the number one selling dog brand, shoppers can feel confident that they are getting a high quality product when they need to do a quick emergency top up of dry dog food.
Supercoat is an Australian made product made with Smartblend technology with a tailored blend of nutrients that help to maximise whole body health for dogs. The formula precisely combines quality protein with natural ingredients to deliver the precise nutrition that a dog requires.
“We now feel confident that shoppers will be able to top up with their favourite dog brand quickly and easily through the convenience channel.”
The 1.5kg Purina Supercoat packs have initially launched in the brand’s top selling flavour, beef.
“While we do have many flavours in the bigger pack formats, for now we’ve decided to launch just with our number one selling flavour. As a top up purchase, shoppers would be purchasing one bag only so we are sticking with our top selling beef flavour.”
The 1.5kg Supercoat NPD will have an RRP of $10 and the launch is being supported with an above the line marketing campaign on television and social media.
This product is widely available across the Metcash network and The Distributors and will be hitting warehouses from mid-April.