This article is part of our digital feature on petcare

Petcare is dominated by products for cats and dogs (and rightly so, given their popularity), but there’s one product that’s often conspicuous in its absence: bird seed. So are retailers missing a trick? 

Given that feeding wild birds has grown in popularity over the past few years thanks to increased focus on it on TV shows and organisations like the RSPB encouraging people to engage more with wildlife, they could be.  

“Feeding garden birds is a fantastic way for people to make a first engagement with nature, and programmes like Springwatch highlight this and generate a general interest in wildlife,” says Scott Oestel of the RSPB trading team. “This naturally has the knock-on effect of encouraging people to buy bird food and feeders, as well as other wildlife products.”

Of course the opportunity hasn’t been entirely missed.  Wild bird seed brand Peckish has increased its sales by £2m in the past year, claiming to have attracted new customers to the market with easy-to-use products.

“There’s fantastic potential in the market,” says Oestel. “Moving forward, the premium end of the market should benefit as customers become more knowledgeable and supermarkets respond. There is a wide variety of great selling products available, and it would be great to see some of these, as well as more premium products, featured more.”

Previous article: Infographic: Posh cat food flies as total petcare falls

Topics

10 Things You Need To Know About... Petcare