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Thailand’s pet food market offers valuable growth opportunities for both existing and new players

Thailand’s pet food market offers valuable growth opportunities for both existing and new players. To set up an effective strategic plan to enter or to win more share, brands require market insight in four key areas:Shopper demographics
Even though households with pets are increasing, less than half buy pet food even once a year, leaving a huge gap in the market. Households with cats are growing faster than those with dogs, and mostly in urban areas. The key area for the rising pet adoption trend is Greater Bangkok.Landscape and opportunity
Despite a huge opportunity gap between the number of pet owners and the number of pet food buyers, the sector is experiencing consistent growth, while benefiting from a trading up or premiumisation trend. There’s room to enter the dog food market: most of the non-pet food buyers have a dog, and there are fewer competitors in that space compared with cat food. Cat food has the potential to penetrate most cat-owning households, but at the same time the market is more competitive as the average brand purchase is higher and the market more fragmented.Product
Dry formats dominate the market in both cat and dog food. More cat owners than dog owners buy wet food, but this format still contributes only a small part of the market. Both cat and dog food are experiencing a premiumisation trend, with the premium and super premium segments growing strongest. The puppy and kitten segments are also growing fast, emphasising the rising pet population in Thailand. However, while scoop up used to be popular shoppers are now switching to packaged formats and this trend is likely to continue.Channel
Pet shops and provision stores play a major role in the pet food market, between them holding the largest share of sales value among all channels in Thailand. Modern trade is growing fast, however, especially hypermarkets and the online channel where shoppers tend to stock up. To enter this market, brands have to be prepared for distribution in both modern trade and traditional trade channels, since both are important in serving different shopping missions. This report gives you an overview of the key points and findings uncovered through Kantar Worldpanel’s ongoing analysis of Thailand’s pet food market.We can take you on a deeper dive to understand shopper behaviour, with insights from our services and expertise that span more than 20 years in Thailand and 65 years globally.