Sainsbury’s takes aim at £430million hypoallergenic pet food market

Sainsbury’s takes aim at £430million hypoallergenic pet food market

18 January 2018

We've launched a new Hypoallergenic range to tap into emerging pet food market. Customers can now access healthier and natural pet food products at affordable prices

 

Sainsbury’s is set to take on the £430million healthy and hypoallergenic pet food market with the launch of its Hypoallergenic Range*. The range, part of a wider investment in the pet aisles, has been created to cater for UK cats and dogs with food allergies or intolerances – with owners having to rely on specialist retailers for such products until now.
 
The new Sainsbury’s range will be available in stores from the end of January 2018 and is the biggest investment the retailer has ever made in its pet food range.
 
The range, developed with pet nutrition experts, addresses the growing demand for pet food that is free from foods commonly known to cause intolerances or allergies in dogs and cats. Sainsbury’s Hypoallergenic Range boasts recipes that are made without ingredients such as wheat, grain, dairy, eggs and soya. The retailer has also created a new range of pet treats made without added sugars, which can contribute to a number of health issues such as pet obesity and diabetes.
 
Meanwhile, Sainsbury’s core range of Complete Nutrition products continue to uphold the high standards customers expect and have all been made to recipes containing no wheat– often found in poorer quality pet foods.
 
Natural pet food now concerns well over a third of the UK’s total 1.3 billion USD spend within the pet speciality market, with grain-free accounting for 15 per cent.**  In the US, where consumer trends run ahead of UK behaviours, grain-free dog and cat food accounts for one-third (34%) of all pet food sales.***
 
Creating a range that is without grains and other common allergens enables customers to feed their pets with confidence. The range will also make these healthier and natural pet food products – for the nation’s ‘clean-eating’ cats and dogs – available outside specialist pet retailers, and at prices more pet owners will be able to afford.
 
Lucy Taylor, Product Developer for Pets at Sainsbury’s said:
“As our customers become more aware of the ingredients in the food they eat, we’ve also seen a shift in buying habits within the pet food market. Our development focus has been to offer a nutritionally-sound product range to satisfy the numerous pet dietary needs - something we’ve identified as increasingly important to pet owners.
“Responding to this emerging trend, we’ve removed artificial colours and flavours across our pet food ranges and introduced recipes made without grain, wheat and other common allergens. The work we’ve done in the pet aisle makes this type of specialist pet nutrition more accessible, offering products that are not only more widely available, but also more affordable.”

 
* https://www.petfoodindustry.com/articles/5502-gfk-grain-free-pet-food-has-potential-to-outgrow-natural
** http://www.gfk.com/en-gb/insights/press-release/natural-and-grain-free-pet-food-serious-contenders-in-the-uk/
*** https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20151119005744/en/Grain-Free-Category-Accounts-34-Pet-Food-Sales