What can cats and dogs do for Godrej Consumer?

Long-term play

In August, Godrej Consumer announced it would enter the pet care market by setting up a brand new subsidiary called Godrej Pet Care. Records with the ministry of corporate affairs show no entity with this name has been incorporated as of now.

A spokesperson for Godrej Consumer declined to comment.

“While the opportunity is clear, we believe that our right to win as a group is high,» Godrej Consumer CEO Sudhir Sitapati told investors in an earnings call in August. “The lead time to set up capex (capital expenditure) is long and we hope to commence manufacturing in the second half of next year.»

Nitin Jain, formerly the director of sales at pet food maker Mars India, is the chief operating officer of this business. He spent nearly 10 years with Mars.

Godrej’s sister concern, Godrej Agrovet, a meat processing and animal feeds business, will manufacture the products.

While Godrej estimates this to be a ₹5,000 crore market, consulting firm Redseer pegs the overall petcare market at $3.5 billion or ₹29,000 crore a year (including food, grooming, veterinary care, and other services). Redseer estimates this will grow to $7-7.5 billion by FY28.

Despite the surge in pet ownership since the covid pandemic, just 10% of Indian households formally own a pet, Godrej’s Sitapati told investors. And of those households, only 10% feed their pets packaged food, he added in the earnings call cited above, alluding to the headroom for growth.

India’s pet food market is largely dominated by three manufacturers. Mars Inc., owner of iconic brands Pedigree and Whiskas, controls an estimated one-third of the total market. Nestlé, which launched Purina in 2018, is a dominant player globally but has been slow to scale up in India, industry executives say. Purina sells pet food brands Supercoat, Felix, and Friskies in India and abroad. In 2022, Nestlé acquired the standalone Purina India business for ₹123 crore.

Broiler conglomerate IB Group is also a major name in the business with brands such as Drools, Purepet, and Meat Up. FMCG company Himalaya also sells some pet food and several pet medicines and supplements.

Godrej is likely to build in the mass-premium category, adjacent to Mars’ Pedigree and Whiskas and their rival Drools. “We are not the kind of company to play at just the top of the pyramid or something small,» Godrej’s Sitapati told investors in the earnings call quoted above. “If we play, we would want to play pretty much in the belly of the market. What exactly the positioning and price is, we’ll figure out with time.»

The aim: to develop a category, and not just compete with market leaders.

“Over the last two years, we’ve developed some muscle around category development,» Sitapati said in the earnings call. “And we feel this is a category that can benefit with category development,» adding that the firm’s ₹500 crore investment is largely for operating expenses, including sales and marketing, not for capacity expansion.

Adjacent business

It is relatively easier for Godrej to enter the pet foods business, given the category is adjacent to its existing animal feeds and meat processing business, Godrej Agrovet. So, while Goderj Consumer focuses on category creation, the sister concern will handle manufacturing. Godrej Agrovet will be compensated for the goods supplied via a transfer pricing mechanism, Sudhir Sitapati told investors during the earnings call. It will also receive a “small management fee» for the transaction, he added.

Access to Godrej Agrovet, which makes nearly half of its annual revenue from the poultry business, gives Godrej Consumer an edge over most of its rivals in the pet foods business. International rivals Mars and Nestlé have largely manufactured their pet food abroad, importing it into India from hubs in South Africa and Europe. Newer pet food brands such as Belotta and Me-O import from Thailand, the biggest source of imported pet food in India.

But, relying on imports alone can mean increased costs and lost chances. When the pandemic and lockdown first struck India in 2020, imported goods struggled as supply chains were disrupted worldwide. Domestic brands Drools, manufactured by its parent poultry firm IB Group, capitalized on the shortage of better-known brands to gain traction in the market. Company filings show that between FY20 and FY22, Drools’ revenue nearly tripled to over ₹350 crore; market leader Mars grew as well, but much slower.

Since then, both Mars and Nestlé have expanded domestic manufacturing. In August last year, Mars announced it would spend ₹800 crore on expanding its existing facility in Telangana. This April, French cat food brand Royal Canin opened its first pet food packaging centre in Bhiwandi, near Mumbai, with a ₹100 crore investment.

Meanwhile, more animal feed and meat processing manufacturers have entered the pet foods business in the last two years. Hyderabad-based Allana Group, among India’s biggest meat exporters, spent ₹200 crore setting up a pet food facility outside Hyderabad in September last year. This May, seafood processor Growel Group said it was spending ₹80-100 crore to open a pet food manufacturing facility in Andhra Pradesh.

But Godrej Consumer has an edge over its poultry and broiler rivals in distribution. “With their personal care and home insecticides products, they already have access to the chemist channel. This has become a big channel for pet foods in the last few years, so their distribution is already in place for this category,» said Mrunmayee Jogalekar, an analyst with broking firm Asit C Mehta.

Demand for better products

“For most manufacturers, pet food is often seen as an attractive space, an afterthought in terms of diversification,» Anand Ramanathan, partner at consulting firm Deloitte and leader of its consumer products and retail practice, told Mint. “They may have an existing animal feed or meat processing business. Traditionally, you take leftovers from your animal feed business and process it into pet foods. That can bring you economies of scale, but there can be challenges in terms of quality and food safety.»

Smaller, insurgent pet care brands are tapping into that concern.

“Most commercial pet food for dogs and cats is made with chicken byproducts including the neck, head, blood, and feathers,» said Abhishek Agrawal, co-founder at Gurugram-based cat food startup Smylo. “They are also full of artificial preservatives to extend the product’s shelf life. But these ingredients aren’t healthy for pets—a majority of pet dogs and cats in India are obese and need better nutrition.»

34-year-old Poulomi Mazumdar, a Mumbai-based consultant and parent to three adopted cats, agrees. “Affordability is an issue, especially with wet food for cats in India,» she said. “I do feed dry kibble (ground meal shaped into pellets) to my cats sometimes, but I avoid it because it is known to cause obesity, dehydration, and kidney-related issues in the long-term.»

Kibble tends to be 30-50% cheaper than wet food. However, Mazumdar eventually reduced the amount of packaged food for her cats altogether, substituting it with home cooked meat and vegetables.

Agrawal and his co-founder Kartikeya Gupta founded Smylo last year, hoping to introduce better-quality cat food made with good cuts of meat and sans artificial preservatives. While researching how to build a cost-effective yet high-quality pet food supply chain, they discovered that southeast Asian manufacturers were ahead of most of their domestic counterparts.

“What matters is the protein digestibility in the pet food,» Smylo’s Gupta explains. “Manufacturers in countries like Vietnam, Thailand, and the Philippines use fresh water fish which have higher digestible protein and fat content than salt water fish or chicken byproduct. They also followed better hygiene standards and had the best machinery, at par with what is used in the UK and Germany.»

Manufacturers in some South East Asian countries use fresh water fish which have higher digestible protein.
— Kartikeya Gupta

While Smylo is clear it wants an entirely domestic supply chain in the long-run, the founders said they are currently experimenting with manufacturers in these southeast Asian countries.

For Godrej to offer higher value for money, it may need to carefully consider what raw materials Godrej Agrovet puts into the pet food it manufactures. “About 65-70% of the overall cost in pet food is raw material cost, so you have to consider the quality of your sources,» Deloitte’s Ramanathan added.

High-margin focus

Godrej Consumer’s interest in pet care comes at a time of great change for the firm. Under Sitapati, the company has been pursuing a long-term strategy of simplifying its product portfolio to focus on high-margin categories, such as premium niches in laundry and now, pet food, where margins can be as high as in the firm’s mainstay personal and home care categories.

“Since FY21, GCPL’s domestic business has shown early signs of revival following the sales slowdown experienced during FY17-FY20,» brokerage firm Motilal Oswal wrote in a company note from September this year. “The under-penetrated HI (home insecticides) and Hair Color categories have significantly benefited from Mr. Sitapati’s extensive experience in transforming low-penetration categories at Hindustan Unilever.»

Winning in a new category will be a crucial part of its strategy to placate investors—the company’s stock has underperformed the Nifty FMCG index in the last three years. In the past year, the company has reported better-than-expected volume growth of 7% year on year. But subdued consumer demand, a surge in palm oil prices, the delayed north Indian winter, and cyclonic weather in south India may affect sales in the December 2024 quarter, Godrej Consumer said in an investor note late last week.

“GCPL’s strength has been rolling out products with a sharp R&D focus to beat rivals,» said analyst Jogalekar. “For example, they took back market share from the illegal incense stick market by launching Good Knight agarbattis earlier this year. They have also successfully launched handwashes and laundry detergents in powder-to-liquid format. Innovation has worked well for them over the years. One would expect the same in their pet care entry.»

Hot opportunity

Despite the manufacturing challenges, the time is ripe for category creation in pet care, say market watchers. Pet food brands in India have not built niches or price differentiation for themselves. Besides, many Indians are becoming pet parents for the first time.

“Post the pandemic, we saw more affluent households spending on pet ownership, but now middle-income households are also adopting pets,» said Deloitte’s Ramanathan.

An affluent household in this context is one with an annual income of over ₹30 lakh. On average, consulting firm Redseer estimates Indian pet parents are spending over ₹50,000 on pet products and services a year. Most of this is offline.

For most experienced pet parents, the biggest pain point is finding packaged food that is of a better quality than the market leaders, but not extremely expensive and intermittently available. Amulya Vanga, a 32-year-old Delhi-based media professional, had plenty of widely available cat food brands to choose from in the US, where she first adopted her pet cat Auggie. But six years ago, when she moved back to India, she settled for Whiskas. “It is widely available in India and at least a standard quality,» she says.

When Auggie’s veterinarian diagnosed the 10-year-old cat with obesity, Vanga was asked to dramatically change his diet. Like Mazumdar in Mumbai, she chose a mix of home cooked meat and vegetables with some Whiskas wet food, necessary for taste and nutrients like taurine not found in human-grade food. “What I see missing in the market is premium, high-quality, widely available, but affordable food, where my cat is getting good quality meat and not grain and filler ingredients.»

That may be Godrej’s opportunity over domestic rivals just entering the business.

Godrej Consumer’s Sitapati said that roughly half of all pet food sales in India come from speciality pet stores. The firm plans to scale up distribution in that channel.

In the earnings call, Godrej Consumer’s Sitapati said that roughly half of all pet food sales in India come from speciality pet stores. The firm plans to scale up distribution in that channel, while it already occupies a leading position in modern trade and e-commerce, where its premium, urban-focused brands in laundry and hair colour sell.

Quick commerce in particular is keen to capitalise on the growing pet care market, brands in this space told Mint. “Category managers for leading quick commerce platforms have been approaching us and other pet care startups to list food,» Garima Kaushal, co-founder of Delhi-based, dog-focused startup Sploot, said. “Platforms like Zepto and Blinkit have taken some share of the pet parent’s wallet. They are all seeking out listings. But quick commerce still tends to be a channel for unplanned stockouts of pet food at home, not yet for planned pet food purchases,» she added.

Dog food brands Pedigree and Drools sell 10kg mega packs of dry kibble for dogs, meant to be stored and used over a long period of time.

Platforms like Blinkit, for instance, have been advertising their pet care offerings aggressively. All kinds of quick commerce orders are often delivered in brown packaging telling customers to get pet products in 10 minutes.

Godrej Consumer already sells heavily on these quick-commerce channels. The rising popularity of pet food on platforms such as Blinkit gives the firm much needed speed in its go-to market strategy. That speed can help boost its new brand even as competitive intensity increases, with more companies entering the market and market leaders increasing domestic capacity.

With so many dogs and cats (and other pets) entering homes, many more firms are likely to invest in this market, and competition in the pet care business will heat up. The next two years will reveal if Sitapati—and Godrej Consumer—can stave off the competition and hold their own, while building a mass category from scratch.