The Pet Industry...
In the United Kingdom there are nearly 6m ‘main shoppers’ who own a dog. The pet industry is that rare beast; a recession proof, perpetually growing sector that shows no signs of decline any time soon.


Why is the pet industry booming?
The pet industry is often described as a ‘niche’ market or a cottage industry. This is a rather outdated, antiquated view of a sector that touches 1 in 2 people in the UK.
Yes, 1 in 2 people in the United Kingdom own a pet. Far from a niche, that’s a mass market.
According to PFMA figures, there are 23 million pets in the UK and the breakdown in pet ownership looks like this:
Dog: 23% (6.0 million households)
Cat: 20% (5.2 million households)
Rabbits: 2.8% (0.7 million households)
With dogs and cats alone, that’s 11.2 million homes that are actively involved in the purchase of pet goods every single day.
The breakdown of pet type is as follows:
8.0 million dogs
8.0 million cats
2.3 million small animals
Around 1.0 million rabbits
0.5 million guinea pigs
1.6 million birds
2.7 million others (inc exotic pets, horses and insects)
Pet ownership is a daily commitment in financial and emotional terms, an every day expense, very much a necessity purchase. And it is for this reason that the pet industry will not only continue its upward trend, it will also present enormous growth opportunities for the businesses who manage to get it right with pet owners.
If we put pet ownership and the associated costs of pet ownership in to perspective, we can see just why it is thriving.
A pet owner is compelled to feed their animal every day (or in the case of some exotic pets, every week). The pet food market has expanded to such a size that pet owners are positively spoiled for choice when it comes to selecting the brands and products they wish their pets to dine on.
The average pet owner will make discretionary purchase decisions on any number of items from the more ‘glamourous’ market sectors. They will cut back on music, they will downgrade the brand of wine, they will swap to own-brand food for themselves much quicker than they would ever downgrade the products or care afforded to their pets. It is an emotional tie and an every day purchase.
Pet owning consumers are becoming increasingly savvy shoppers. They care as much about the health, diet and well-being of their pets as they do about themselves, in some cases more so!
Lifestyle pet products are increasingly popular.
Protecting the health of pets is a growing prioritiy for UK pet owners, a fact born out by the year on year rise in pet insurance take up.
The UK pet industry is worth a shade under £2bn. But that figure continues to rise and industry analysists predict further long term growth in this market space.
£1.03bn of the pet industry’s market value comes from the sale of feed. This is a sector that expands in terms of the diverse range of products on offer almost quarterly. The largest growth predicted in this space is in all natural, holisitic/organic type pet food products.


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