Catfood

In the wet sector, led by Felix in the number one slot, followed by Whiskas, consumers are moving away from the traditional canned format and opting for the convenience of single serve portions. Canned sales are down 5%, while single serve pouches and foil trays of 150g or less are up 27%. Single serve growth is driven by Whiskas Single Serve and Felix Rascals Reward, followed by Kitekat Express. The need for convenience has led to more innovative launches combining the benefits of wet and dry, such as Felix Duo-Pot. Dry food is growing steadily, up 6.5% year on year, with Go Cat still dominating the sector with 38% of sales. Cat food is increasingly being segmented according to lifestage, with products serving the needs of kittens through to elderly animals. Dogfood Pedigree is the leading brand, largely due to its dominance of the wet sector. Competition for second place is intense, with Butchers, Cesar, Pal and Winalot all gaining ground on Pedigree. Own label has grown slightly, but still has a relatively low share of 18%. The main growth area is dry food, with complete dry meals gaining 24%, led by Bakers and Pedigree. Winalot Complete Digestion+ has made a huge impact, confirming the trend towards healthier dog food. Prepacked biscuits are dominated by Bonio and Shapes, with Pedigree and Winalot leading the mixer sector which has the highest own label share. Retailer shares Tesco's investment in the category shows in it having the biggest retailer share of both cat and dog food (cats: 23.2%, up 6.1%, and dogs 20.6%, down 1.3%). In catfood, it is followed by Sainsbury (18.4%) and Asda (12.9% up 9.8%). Asda is also doing well in dogfood, with 15.5% share, up 21.5%, followed by Sainsbury (12.3%, down 9%). Morrisons has made significant gains with cats' 5% share up 11.7% and dogs' 5.2% up 13.8%. The independents have fared the worst in catfood, their 4.4% share losing 18.3%, while in dogfood their 6.2% share has gained 5.4%. {{FOCUS SPECIALS }}