As with many grocery markets, convenience is the key to success and the increase in popularity of dry petfood mirrors the overall trend towards convenience. The benefit of dry petfood is that it can be bought in bigger pack sizes because once opened, it remains fresh for longer. The biggest increase is in dry catfood, which has grown by more than 17%. Within the wet petfood sector, products showing the greatest growth are those that come in single-serve pouches or foil trays. As a sector, pouches have seen the greatest growth, at almost 63%, with catfood dominating the pouch format. Felix has followed suit through the recent launch of a pouch version of the brand and with the first mainstream single-serve 85g can launched in October. With the canned sector declining by 12%, it remains to be seen whether these new size cans will provide a rival to pouches and foil trays. Also driving the dry petfood sector was the launch of the Iams range in March 2001. Sold as Eukanuba in pet stores, Iams has taken the grocery market by storm by creating a whole new market specialising in lifestage solutions. Iams Complete dry catfood is just outside the top 20 with sales of more than £10m. This launch was closely followed by Pedigree, which has launched its own version, Pedigree LifeStage. Ralston Purina recently re-launched its Bakers range with new packaging and recipes emphasising the real meaty chunks'. Complete meals offer the benefits of convenience by eliminating the need for additional mixer products. As a result, main meal mixers have declined 12%. {{P&P }}