Known for selling “chic” items for pets — with beds that cost as much as R$500 in the portfolio — Zee.Dog is taking its brand’s super-premium concept to the natural pet food segment with Zee. Dog Kitchen.
The new business is an initiative that takes Petz — which bought the company last year for R$715 million — into the natural dog food niche.
The factory, which has the capacity to produce up to 3,600 tons per year and an estimated turnover of R$ 250 million, is located in the city of Americana, in the interior of São Paulo, where the ingredients used in the manufacture are also grown.
All the raw material for the product — beef, pork and chicken protein, rice, sweet potatoes, potatoes and okra — comes from small producers in the municipality or nearby cities.
For the consumer, the price of the super premium feed launched by the company will vary between R$ 90 and R$ 130 per 1.6 kg package — the value per kilo is six times higher than that of a traditional dog food.
In this way, the company’s great bet to conquer the market is in the quality of canine food. Pedro Vital Brazil, co-founder of ElevenChimps — a company that was purchased by Zee.Dog in December 2020, as part of the plan to enter the animal feed segment with its own brand — explains that this is the differential of Zee.Dog Kitchen.
“Our diets are human food level. This concept has been distorted over the decades and the quality level of animal feed has become dubious,” he says.
In Brazil, each consumer buys, on average, 12.4 kg of animal feed items per year, according to consultancy Statista. Industry revenue is expected to rise by 10% in 2022.
Dollar revenue
Zee.Dog Kitchen’s pet food is made inside the pots in which it is sold to the consumer. The technique, which is the same used by small producers of dulce de leche, enables the shelf life of one year without the need for refrigeration.
The brand’s natural foods will be sold at more than 15,000 points of sale in the country, including Petz stores.
The company is also keeping an eye on the foreign market and the objective in the next two years is to start the process of exporting the items to 50 countries. The proposal is to follow the model adopted by companies such as JBS, keeping the cost in reais and revenue in dollars.
The rush to implement international expansion is justified. The idea is to take advantage of the moment to position the brand in a market that is on the rise.
“Over the past decade, there has been a cultural shift in the way people care for pets. If you don’t see your pet as a child, you won’t want to invest in better products and foods. It will simply treat you like an animal”, says Felipe Diz, founder and CEO of Zee.Dog.
Diversification
Owner of Zee.Dog, Petz has more than 170 stores across the country and also operates in veterinary care. Even in the face of high interest rates and inflation in the Brazilian economy, the company had adjusted net income of R$21.1 million in the first quarter of this year, a growth of 57.7% compared to the same period in 2021.
One of the highlights of the balance sheet was the 41.5% increase in sales in digital channels, a category of which Zee.Dog is a part.
To expand business, Petz — which raised BRL 700 million on the Brazilian stock exchange, in a stock offering concluded in November 2021 — also invested in acquisitions of companies such as the digital content platform Cansei De Ser Gato, Cão Cidadão, specialized in in dressage, and Petix, for hygienic rugs. The information is from the newspaper. The State of São Paulo.
Source: CNN Brasil
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