Cat Food Industry In The UK

Cat Food Industry In The UK By using environmental analysis, it is possible for organizations to recognize existing opportunities and threats for companies, define strategies to best utilizing opportunities and also to minimize the bad consequences of threats (Arabi & Parsaeian, 2001). And the most important, the analysis can provide a rational future prediction as a base for future strategy adjustment. The company can forecast the consumer tends in next decade and rearrange its products in order to capture the volatile market share in a long-term perspective. The remote environment has the origin of factors that influencing operating environment. In industry-level analysis, it is necessary to analyze a macro environment of a company and access its performance of competitors responding to external elements. The object of this paper is to analyze remote environment and operating environment of cat food industry at United Kingdom. Part Two will be industry definitions. The industry background will be introduced in Part three at three levels, global market, Western Europe market and UK market. Part Four will be remote environment analysis by using PEST model, followed by operating environment analysis in Part Five by using Porter’s Five Forces Model. 2. Industry and Product definition200 211 Wikipedia defines Pet food as plant or animal material intended for consumption by pets. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pet_food) Mintel defines pet food as any foods that are specifically formulated and marketed for pets, including treats (Mintel, 2009). In legislation, â€Å"pet food† means a feeding stuff for pet animals. To achieve the appropriate balance of nutrients pet food, manufacturers blend mixtures of ingredients including meat and fish, with vegetables, cereals, vitamins and minerals to produce foods that will satisfy the nutritional requirements of a pet(PFMA). It is typically sold in pet stores or supermarkets. And pet food is divided into three categories (Figure 2): dog foo d, cat food and other pet food (i.e. fish food, bird food). Pet Food sells in the form that either prepared or non-prepared. Figure 2 Pet Food Segment In this paper, cat food intends to be defined as food product specifically formulated for feeding of cats. For the purposes of this paper, some further definitions used by Mintel reports are as follows: Wet cat food ‘C including wet canned cat food with a moisture content of 60-85% and semi-moist food with a moisture content of 25-30% and includes complete foods. Dry cat food ‘C has a moisture content of around 10% and includes complete foods Treats and Mixers’C food supplement for cat. 3. Cat food industry Background 200 475 3.1 Global Cat Food Market Figure 3 (Source: Euromonitor International) According to data from Euromonitor, in 2009, the Global retail value sales of cat food reach US19.6 billion dollars, at a growth rate of 4%. Although Dog food continues to occupy nearly half of pet food and pet care market, cat food market ‘posted a comparable CAGR (Compound Annual Growth Rate) of 5 % during the period 2004-2008’. This indicates that the economic downturn had slight impact on this industry. However, the rising rates of house repossessions contribute to the decline in the pet populations, especially in western economies. The recession caused the lack of consumer confidence which lead to backward sales of the whole cat food market at 2008, but the global market is still growing in 2009 as the ongoing trend of pet humanization that ‘consumers want value-added products that extend both the quality and length of the pet’s life’.