Simmons Foods – Strategic Update & Private Label Pet
Food Demand – 25 June 2021
Disclaimer
The information, material and content contained in this transcript (“Content”) is for information purposes only and
does not constitute advice of any type or a trade recommendation and should not form the basis of any investment
decision. This transcript has been edited by Third Bridge and may differ from the audio recording of the Interview.
Third Bridge Group Limited and its affiliates (together “Third Bridge”) make no representation and accept no liability
for the Content or for any errors, omissions or inaccuracies in respect of it. The views of the specialist expressed in the
Content are those of the specialist and they are not endorsed by, nor do they represent the opinion of, Third Bridge.
Third Bridge reserves all copyright, intellectual and other property rights in the Content. Any modification,
reformatting, copying, displaying, distributing, transmitting, publishing, licensing, creating derivative works from,
transferring or selling any Content is strictly prohibited.
Specialist: William McKee (WM)
Title:
Moderator: Nyree Hinton (NH), Third Bridge Sector Analyst
Former VP, Private Label Sales at Simmons Foods Inc
Agenda:
1. Poultry production operating dynamics for Simmons Foods
2. Private label customer gains across pet food
3. Animal nutrition ingredient trends and innovation
4. Commodity inflation outlook
Contents
Q: Could you give an overview of the US pet food industry and the main subcategories and top players in
private label?
3
Q: How mature is pet food private label compared to categories such as traditional poultry, where every
supermarket has its own brand? Is there still a lot of opportunity to gain market share from branded pet food
4
products?
Q: Are any subcategories across dry, wet and treats leading the way with health and wellness, clean
ingredients and packaging?
5
Q: Could you elaborate on what consumers are seeking to remove from their pets’ diets? Is there anything
specific, or is the pet owner pursuing the overall health halo that makes them feel better about what they feed
5
their pet? How do you assess consumer education?
Q: Are pet health trends following human health trends? Have you noticed any unique pet health
innovations? Could a supplier consider what’s available to humans across supplements and other areas, pick
out the next best thing, implement it into pet and get ahead?
6
Q: Could you give an overview of Simmons Foods and how its pet food business has evolved over the last few
6
years?
Q: How do you assess the pet food industry’s agility and ability to keep up with capacity and demand
throughout coronavirus? The pandemic caused extreme demand in almost every CPG category and
widespread pet adoption. Is this industry hard to be agile and meet demand quickly in? Can players move on
7
a dime to increase output?
Q: How would you prioritise customers in a high-demand environment when there’s limited resources and
shortages? You said that ingredient sourcing has been more of a limiting factor than capacity.
8
Q: How do you assess the state of product launches vs a few years ago amid the health and wellness trend?
Has there been a rebound in product launches or are firms being nimbler and more specific about the SKUs
they offer?
8
Q: What’s your take on retailer-supplier relationships? How can established brands maintain their
dominance amid the reshuffling towards smaller brands and private label? Do you consider this reshuffling
to be a major risk to the established players, or could the brand affinity of Blue Buffalo and others protect
their business models?
9
Q: What are your thoughts on Blue Buffalo, brand affinity and the influence of marketing? You touched on
this earlier, but the industry increasingly seems to be a marketing game – if I walk into Walmart, I may
notice competitor brands on the shelf, but I may not know anything about them, except that they’re next to
Blue Buffalo. Could you also touch on increased marketing aggressiveness from retailers who are trying to be
10
more successful in pet food private label?
Simmons Foods – Strategic Update & Private Label Pet
Food Demand
Transcription begins at 00:00:00 of the recorded material
NH: Welcome to Third Bridge Forum’s Interview entitled Simmons Foods – Strategic Update & Private Label
Pet Food Demand. I’m Nyree Hinton and I will be facilitating today’s Interview with Mr William McKee,
former VP of Private Label Sales at Simmons Foods Inc.
William, before we get started with today’s Interview, please state I agree or I disagree to the following
statement: You understand the definition of material non-public information and agree not to disclose any
such information, or any other information which is confidential, during this Interview.
WM: I agree.
NH: Thank you, William. Could you introduce us to your background and the various roles you’ve held in the
industry?
WM: Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Bill McKee. In my present role for the last two years, I’ve been
Sales Director for McCormick & Company, Sales Director for the Brand Aromatics division, which is a supplier
of savoury ingredients. Prior to that, for just about 20 years, I was Vice President of Sales, various sales
leadership roles, but for the last seven or eight years, I was Vice President of Private Label Sales for North
America for Simmons Pet Food, which is a division of Simmons Foods.
[00:01:27]
Q: Could you give an overview of the US pet food industry and the main subcategories and top players in
private label?
WM: Yes, I’d be happy to, boy, we could spend all day on it. First of all, I would say the overarching trend in
pet food today is this very dramatic shift towards health-and-wellness kinds of products. You see that when
you start to talk about trends and where people are going in terms of packaging, ingredients and even new
products. That being said, if you look at the market, we continue to see growth. Pet food appears to be
somewhat recession-proof, just as food might be in the human market. You have to look at pet food in terms of
species, cat and dog, but if you look at it in terms of the overall pet food market, it is dominated by the dry
formats, so dry pet food or kibble, literally almost half of pet food sales is in that dry pet food arena. Wet and
treats are really equal. They’re each about 25%, 23%-ish, 26%-ish. You do have a small emerging segment
that’s refrigerated, freeze-dried, they’re showing great growth, but relatively modest, 1-2% of the market. You
do have to add some context around species. If you look at the ratio between dry and wet with respect to cat
and dog, dry and wet for cats, it’s darn near split evenly down the middle, 50/50, as cat owners buy both dry
kibble and canned or wet, but if you look at dog, dog food, it’s overwhelmingly dry, it’s 75% dry and 25% wet.
Again, while dry is king, you definitely see these differences in species, for sure.
With respect to who are the major players? I think you have to look at it in terms of branded and then players
who are a bit under the radar because they’re not really branded companies. Simmons would be one of those.
Simmons doesn’t have a brand. Everything they do has somebody else’s label or name on the package. No
doubt, the two big players globally and in the US are clearly Nestlé Purina and Mars Petcare. They are neck
and neck number one and number two by far. Mars would be number one globally, with Nestlé a strong
number two, and then in North America, they’ve reversed positions a little bit, with Nestlé being the leader
Private and confidential 3
and then Mars following suit. You do have several other players, though, that are quite strong. JM Smucker is
clearly a number three, and does better in some segments than that. They’re a major player in treats and they
certainly do well on the cat side of the fence, for sure. Can’t have this discussion without mentioning Blue
Buffalo. They continue to show growth. They’ve really ridden that health-and-wellness wave, if you will, and
certainly we see that growth continue since they’ve been acquired by General Mills and expanded their
distribution beyond that pet speciality channel.
They clearly are the big four, no doubt about that, but you really do need to talk about a few other players that,
again, because they’re not branded companies, are worthy of discussions, and I’ll probably limit it to four.
Certainly, Simmons, no doubt about it, would be the overwhelming leader in the wet category with respect to
private label and contract manufacturing. You have a fairly new entity, Red Collar Pet Foods that was formed
by Arbor Investments via some acquisitions. They’ve cobbled together a company that’s heavy on dry
manufacturing. Then rounding out that list would be Sunshine Mills, again, heavy on the dry side, for sure,
and then, again, another fairly new entity due to some mergers and acquisitions, Alphia, which is the
combination of CJ Foods and American Nutrition. Those last three, Red Collar, Sunshine and Alphia, really
focus in the dry treat area. They do not have any wet capability. Then, while Simmons has dry and treat
capability, they clearly are the premier wet pet food manufacturer.
[00:08:19]
Q: How mature is pet food private label compared to categories such as traditional poultry, where every
supermarket has its own brand? Is there still a lot of opportunity to gain market share from branded pet food
products?
WM: Yes, I think there clearly is opportunity. I would say the base private label pet food would be relatively
mature. Retailers today, no matter whether that’s Kroger or Chewy.com or Walmart or Loblaws in Canada, H-
E-B in Texas, but even non-consumer product retailers such as Bed Bath & Beyond, private label is a key part
of their overall strategy. It’s a way retailers are going to differentiate themselves. It’s a way they can add some
profitability to the category, for sure, and pet really fits very well in that strategy. I should mention Tractor
Supply. Pet and private label pet is extraordinarily important to Tractor Supply. I just read their release and
they talk about pet and how important it is there. Again, because of the overwhelming support of store brands
that we see today, pet really fits into that. If you look at the size of the category, it’s about the 10th largest
category, certainly at brick-and-mortar retailers such as grocery mass, which is interesting when you consider
only about one out of two people walking through the door own a cat or a dog. With half the population
owning a cat or a dog, it’s a top category, so retailers want to play in that space.
I think there’s one area of private label where we’re seeing growth and I think you’ll continue to see
opportunity there. I went out last night and visited a whole bunch of stores as part of the prep for this event.
You can see it when you stand in front of the pet food shelf. You have that really traditional, classic private
label business, which is, “Give me a product that equals or is as good as,” let’s pick a brand, “Fancy Feast
three-ounce cat food.” You want it to be in the same kind of container, you want it to look the same, you want
the ingredients to be the same and the retailer is going to make a couple more pennies on the transactions. The
consumer, she knows Fancy Feast costs USD 0.69 and she immediately can see this can of Kroger, three-
ounce, and it’s USD 0.60, and so she knows intuitively it looks the same, it’s going to perform the same and it’s
a saving to her. That’s that classic private label approach, national brand equivalent, if you will.
I think those segments are relatively mature. Some of those categories do tend to get highly promoted by the
brands, so there’s some noise in there. The last time I attended a forum and they shared IRI data, it didn’t look
like that traditional private label had garnered much ground. It’s in that 9%, 10%, 11%, 12% share, if you will.
However, where you see a lot of energy is in these products that really focus on health-and-wellness, better-
for-you products. Blue Buffalo, if you read their Blue Promise, no animal by-products, no colours, no artificial
ingredients. You see that in every other aisle of the supermarket. I was extraordinarily struck, last night, by the
amount of space devoted to these, I’ll say, super-premium retailer brands. Walmart has Pure Balance. Tractor
Supply has 4Health. PetSmart has Authority. Chewy.com, an online retailer, for sure, but they have American
Journey. Those products, they are not national brand equivalent. These retailers have developed those
Private and confidential 4
products, they’re standalone, they’re intended to meet the consumers’ needs. You see them at much higher
retails, for sure. Intuitively, that tells me there’s more margin there, but that’s where I see the growth
opportunities. That’s where consumers are gravitating to anyway and I think that’s where you see private label
really gravitating. That’s where I see the growth of private label pet food, in more of these health-and-wellness
products.
[00:15:19]
Q: Are any subcategories across dry, wet and treats leading the way with health and wellness, clean
ingredients and packaging?
WM: I think you see it in all categories, no doubt about it. Dry pet food, sometimes referred to as brown and
round. 20 years ago, you bought Purina Dog Chow and it had these bright artificial colours, certainly a lot of
brown but you saw some yellow and green, and it’s basically corn and wheat. Today, you buy dry pet food,
there’s a higher real-meat content to it. You’ve seen that change or shift, if you will, in all pet food segments,
but, again, I think where we’ve seen the resurgence has been in the wet space. While, again, dry, no doubt
about it, is the dominant product place in pet food, where we’ve seen growth, certainly over the last couple of
years, has been in the wet category, both cat and dog. That’s where all the growth in the category is coming,
along with treats, for sure. Again, refrigerated has a small base but showing really good growth. Dry cat and
dog, you’re only seeing very, very modest growth, 1% or 2%.
I think consumers, when you look at format, whether you have dry kibble that is made of corn or whether you
have dry kibble that is made out of chicken, really hard to visually distinguish that, but in wet, for sure, these
products are demonstrably different. If you look at traditional wet products, we’ll pick on, we’ll look at wet
dog, if you look at Alpo or Pedigree or Walmart Ol’ Roy, they’re meaty products, by the way, they have a fairly
nice aroma, decent products, but if you compare them to the health-and-wellness counterpart, demonstrably
different. You can have wonderful herbal aromas. You see healthy ingredients such as sweet potatoes and
cranberries. You’re told there are no by-products in there. I think that’s why you’ve seen wet have this bit of a
resurgence, because you really can show that the product is demonstrably different, more than you can in dry,
no doubt about it. The other challenge dry has, by the way, is clearly, while we love pets, we are seeing a shift
towards smaller dogs vs larger dogs, so certainly you see that in the number of small dogs obviously consume
less dry than they do, wet is used as a topper or a treat. Again, that shift has gone on as well. Wet would be the
category where, and, again, you’re seeing it in the numbers, it has a resurgence.
[00:19:32]
Q: Could you elaborate on what consumers are seeking to remove from their pets’ diets? Is there anything
specific, or is the pet owner pursuing the overall health halo that makes them feel better about what they feed
their pet? How do you assess consumer education?
WM: If you’re around pet, you hear people say, “It’s the humanisation of pets, we attribute everything in pet
food to that trend.” While that’s true, I think you really need to understand the trend. We have always wanted
for our pets similarly to what we want for ourselves. It’s just meant different things in different time periods. I
would say before COVID, and this really started the catalyst for it, there was an industry-wide pet food recall in
2007. It was attributed to an ingredient that was imported for China that a lot of the pet food companies used.
Wheat gluten was that ingredient and it was imported from China. There was a case of adulteration and, again,
industry-wide recall. That really was the catalyst for consumers moving towards health and wellness of the
day, which really was a focus on ingredients. Maybe you understood, you knew what chicken was, you knew
what sweet potato was, so (? 21.42) a focus on ingredients. Then I’ll also say even important would be what
was not in there. Grains became a bad ingredient. My doctor tells me healthy grains should be part of my diet,
but I think consumers attribute grain, when they see maybe soy, they consider that may be a filler or a cheaper
ingredient. Before COVID, this kind of approach was really an ingredient focus.
Private and confidential 5
I think after COVID, we’ve just seen this health and wellness explode into a lot of other areas. Ingredients are
still critically important, no doubt about it. Consumers don’t want by-products, they don’t want colours, they
don’t want preservatives. We’ve seen the hunt for what’s the next magic ingredient going to be? We’ve gone
through coconut water and pumpkin and some of those things, but you’re really seeing this other, this more
holistic approach. Consumers want products that are toppers or enhancers. We want to add something to the
food that’s going to make it taste better. Maybe that’s going to be bone broth that we’re going to pour on top of
the kibble because we think that helps with joint health. Supplements, we are supplementing like we never
have with our pets. We’re concerned, no secret here, we’re worried about immunity and stress. We’re stressed
out and our pets are anxious, so we’re seeing CBD treats all over the place. We’re even concerned like no time
ever before about our pets’ dental health. Before COVID, there clearly was a shift towards better-for-you kinds
of products, but it really was what’s in the package ingredient? Today, it’s really branching out in just about
every area that you can think of.
[00:24:27]
Q: Are pet health trends following human health trends? Have you noticed any unique pet health innovations?
Could a supplier consider what’s available to humans across supplements and other areas, pick out the next
best thing, implement it into pet and get ahead?
WM: Certainly, I think we’ve seen the genesis now of technology working its way into pet. I think Mars
actually made an investment into the equivalent of a Fitbit for your pet. We want to monitor our health, so
now we can monitor our pet health. The other technological thing, so I can research my heritage on Ancestry.
Guess what? You can now find out or try to figure out what breed your dog is if you’ve adopted, like many of us
do from our local shelters. I think clearly, this area of technology, you’re going to continue to see that explode
for sure. Then I think one more trend I want to talk about, and then we could probably talk more about food,
but I think we’re also seeing this trend as brick and mortar try to figure out their place. I think the two big
things I’ve seen emerge there is this concept of services, so a holistic approach to the care of your animal. If
you go to a PetSmart, you can buy your food, there’s a vet clinic, there’s a clinic at some of them where you can
get that care. There are washing stations, so you can even wash your pet if you don’t want to do it in your own
house. Then certainly grooming. You’ve seen other folks jump into that game. Tractor Supply now, their new
bosses have pet-wash stations and some of them advertise they’ll have a visiting vet a couple of days a week.
This concept of total care makes sense.
I think from a pet food perspective, you’ve started to really see products that are more supportive of some of
those things. We’ve always had products that maybe talked about joint health, but now we’re seeing more
products focused on digestion, immunity, brain function, clear eyes, those kinds of things. I think they’re
really supportive of these other trends I talked about, this really holistic approach to our pet health and
nutrition being at the front of it. We’re looking a lot more closely at, I guess I’ll say functional foods maybe is
where I would go. You’ve got to be careful because of claims, but I think this next evolution would be pet foods
that are more functional, and certainly there are some of them out there today, but I think functional is the
wave of the future.
[00:28:42]
Q: Could you give an overview of Simmons Foods and how its pet food business has evolved over the last few
years?
WM: I could just talk about my experience or my opinion, for sure. Pet food, if you look at Simmons as a
company, traditional poultry processor, for sure. I think they publicly talk about that’s the largest, in terms of
revenue, part of their business. They had a small pet food business. While I was with them for 20 years, I went
to them via an acquisition. They acquired a Canadian company, a public company, a public Canadian company
called Menu Foods in 2010, but prior to that, Simmons had a very small pet food division that really focused
on low-end value products you might see in the dollar channel. I think at the time, they obviously saw the
Private and confidential 6
trend into more premium products and you can either buy or build, and then I think the approach taken was
buy.
Menu Foods was a significantly larger pet food business. Menu Foods had been one of the companies in that
recall that I mentioned in 2007 and, while it was a public company, the family of the founders were the
majority owners and they were just growing a bit weary and were looking for an exit strategy. That’s how that
transaction really unfolded. That’s where Simmons got into the pet food business in a much bigger way and
that’s also the way they got into maybe more of the right kinds of categories. Menu Foods had a great
reputation of developing private label programmes, for sure, with a lot of the leading North American retailers.
That’s how that transaction unfolded and that really propelled Simmons on the way to where they are today.
They ended up with four wet pet food plants. Three came through the acquisition. One was the legacy plant.
That was repurposed as a treat plant. Of the three legacy pet food plants they acquired, they’ve shuttered
Pennsauken, New Jersey. They’ve expanded a Kansas plant, but now, again, I read they are in the process of
commercialising a new facility in the Midwest area. They’ve certainly added dry capability with a single plant
in Decatur and, again, they’ve entered the treat, more of a jerky-style treat, with the old wet facility in
Arkansas.
Again, it’s out there, the company has a focus on two parts of the business. They do not have a brand to speak
of. They certainly support store brands, private label, that’s the division I ran for quite a while, and then
certainly they co-manufacture. A lot of those brands that we’ve talked about today and some we haven’t, a lot
of those companies are either virtual companies and don’t have any manufacturing. Some of them have a
combination of self-manufacture and co-man, and then certainly some, due to temporary situations, before
they add capacity, they may use a co-man and that’s where Simmons plays, so those two segments. Invariably,
everything they do is making product for somebody else, whether those are store brands or whether that’s
another brand, but that is the pet food business today. There’s a third division that doesn’t get talked about a
lot. I don’t know what it’s called today, but we used to call it the protein division. It was relatively a small piece
of the business, but it’s the piece of the business that took all the leftover material from the poultry business
and turned it into more useful ingredients, whether that’s for the human market and then certainly for the pet
food ingredients. They’ve made an acquisition there, and that was several years ago. I don’t know the relative
size, they didn’t mention in any of their public disclosures, but that business could be a bit more meaningful
than it was, today.
Today, it’s poultry, it’s pet food and it is ingredients. I think the role pet food plays, my current role, I had the
opportunity to look at the protein market a little bit, and we go through cycles there where feed costs are high
and output drops, and costs go lower and output increases. I think pet food plays an important role as to help
even out things, diversify the portfolio rather than just be totally dependent on poultry.
[00:35:39]
Q: How do you assess the pet food industry’s agility and ability to keep up with capacity and demand
throughout coronavirus? The pandemic caused extreme demand in almost every CPG category and
widespread pet adoption. Is this industry hard to be agile and meet demand quickly in? Can players move on a
dime to increase output?
WM: I think I can only give you my opinion for sure on this. I think the challenge is one of raw materials.
Clearly, the last year, you saw similar effects in pet food as you did in the human market, stockpiling. We put
all kinds of things in our pantry. I don’t know why, I looked the other week, I have four boxes of chicken broth
in my pantry. It felt like the right thing to do at the time. We all read the articles about toilet paper and paper
towels and how those things were rationed. If you think about it for a second, if I couldn’t go to a store for two
weeks, we probably would have enough food. It wouldn’t be stuff we liked. We certainly would be reaching to
the back of the freezer. We certainly would have made a box of something that we don’t normally like, but we
would have an opportunity. If you think about our pets, if you don’t have food, if a store is out of stock or if you
can’t get to a store for a couple-of-week period, you have some challenges. The last year, you certainly saw this
uptick in pet food demand, as we were concerned about running of food. Pet was one of those categories.
Private and confidential 7
In the industry, I don’t think the limiting factor was capacity. Even the plant Simmons shuttered was fairly
antiquated and even along the way they had added additional capacity. We’ve seen some announcements
about additional plants being built. To me, I think the limiting factor is always getting ingredients, so I’m sure
that’s where the challenge was. When you say pivot at a moment’s notice, I think the challenge is in that supply
chain in ingredients, because if you can’t get the proteins or the other ingredients, that’s where that chink in
the armour is going to be. I think there’s relative capacity, good capacity available in the pet space, it feels like.
You’ve seen the numbers that are reported by the public companies. They’ve all seemed to have good pet
results, so clearly the industry had capacity. It looks like, for the most part though, while ingredients were the
challenge, they’ve overcome a lot of that, but I’m sure there’s a parallel to the human market, because,
remember, a lot of these materials are by-products from the poultry market, from the beef and pork market.
There were challenges last year in those spaces. We read about them. I’m sure those were challenges.
Then the last thing I would say would be pivoting on the dime, it might be a little challenge. With respect to
new technology, I think there could be a little bit of ramp-up time to get to some new technology. Great
example would be, and, again, you can read about this online, there’s a particular package type we are starting
to see in wet pet food, and I would call it single serve. It’s a pouch or it’s a cup. Cesar is the big brand, three-
and-a-half ounces of wet dog food. It’s in a plastic cup with a foil lid. You see other types. You see it on cat,
little two-ounce portions. Single-design food, it’s one serving or you put this on top of some kibble, as that
enhancer that I talked about before. That package type is growing. You see it all over the place. You want to
expand that capacity, it probably took about a year to add that additional capacity and I’m sure within that, if
you add a new capability. Stopping and pivoting on a dime, it’s not necessarily hard to do, but I think there’s
some time involved in it to get equipment, to add that technology, packaging equipment. If you’re trying to
add additional capabilities, I think there are lead times involved in that.
[00:42:08]
Q: How would you prioritise customers in a high-demand environment when there’s limited resources and
shortages? You said that ingredient sourcing has been more of a limiting factor than capacity.
WM: I guess the quick answer is everybody is equal, and you know that’s not really the reality. I think, this is
me speaking personally, you do a couple of things in your business. I think you have a hyper focus on demand
planning so that you really understand where that demand is. There’s not a lot of seasonality to pet food.
There’s some, for sure, but not like canned soup. Everybody knows that’s going to spike in the fall, and things
of that nature. I think there’s a hyper focus on demand planning and establishing where that demand is going
to be so that you can work towards that goal, so that you can understand, if something is coming down the
road that you need to prepare for, do you need to staff for that, do you need to build inventory in advance for
that? You can run some overtime, you can shift differently in advancement of that bubble. I think, clearly, the
customers who partner with you the most on demand planning would be the ones, they make prioritising easy
because you can manage their business better. I think demand planning helps you prioritise, just because it
gives you the answers a lot earlier than when you’re in the middle of something. I am sure there was a
challenge when COVID hit, when you walked in one morning and you had a purchase order triple from your
monthly demand, from what you were anticipating. I couldn’t tell you how that was addressed, for sure.
[00:45:12]
Q: How do you assess the state of product launches vs a few years ago amid the health and wellness trend?
Has there been a rebound in product launches or are firms being nimbler and more specific about the SKUs
they offer?
WM: I think we clearly are seeing a proliferation of new products and we’re starting to see retailers be open to
trying out new brands, and it’s certainly created some challenges for everybody. It’s created some specific
challenge for store brands, particularly that traditional stuff. I think the genesis of it is when General Mills
said, “We’re going to make Blue Buffalo available in multiple channels,” that really set the stage for what we’re
Private and confidential 8
seeing today with respect to a lot of brands being sold (? 46.39). I talked about Walmart launching this Pure
Balance brand, which is a big success for them. The reason why they launched it is because Blue Buffalo
wouldn’t sell it to them and, 10 years later, they now have Blue Buffalo on the shelf. Before they could get Blue
Buffalo, they added Nutro, another health-and-wellness brand. I think the first thing you saw, forget about
product proliferation, you’ve seen brand proliferation. When Blue Buffalo went wide-stream, you saw
PetSmart de-emphasise them. Again, I was in a PetSmart last night and Blue Buffalo has a lot less shelf space
than they did a couple of years ago. You also see different brands in PetSmart than you did five years ago. You
see Nulo, which is an up-and-coming brand, as PetSmart looks to have something that you can only get there,
in addition to all their own private label. The first thing I think we’ve seen is this proliferation of brands, which
obviously there’s only a finite amount of space in the store, so clearly there have been challenges there. That
could be one of the reasons why you see a little bit of de-emphasis maybe on traditional private label, the
business has gone in other directions anyway, but you also have these other brands doing what they do best,
which is secure shelf space.
Also, you’ve seen, from a product standpoint, some things emerge. I talked about some of the things
specifically when I talked about before COVID, it was ingredients, after, it’s more things. You’ve seen a lot of
really truly innovative things in pet food and the one big one is this lickable cat treat. It, basically, is a half-
ounce of paste-like, I’ll say it’s a liquid treat, and you squeeze it out almost like a freeze pop when you were a
kid, but instead of handing the treat to your cat, you treat your cat to this interaction. The cat is enjoying the
treat and you get that owner satisfaction. That is brand new and that is out there. Pet hydration products,
we’re starting to see more of those kinds of things. We are seeing more and different kinds of products. This
area of toppers and enhancers is growing leaps and bounds and we’re seeing more and more of these things
that you can moisten kibble, flavour kibble, make kibble more nutritious, for sure. We’ve seen brand
proliferation, for sure, as retailers are trying to react to the marketplace, but then it’s not just new products,
we’re really starting to see a lot more innovation, for sure.
[00:50:31]
Q: What’s your take on retailer-supplier relationships? How can established brands maintain their dominance
amid the reshuffling towards smaller brands and private label? Do you consider this reshuffling to be a major
risk to the established players, or could the brand affinity of Blue Buffalo and others protect their business
models?
WM: Those brands are doing well. Nestlé and Mars are formidable. General Mills is right there. They’ve done
a great job of talking to consumers and driving that business. You see the Blue Buffalo commercials. They
make you think your dog is a wolf, “Feed it wilderness, it’s what your dog craves.” They’ve done a great job and
they work really, really well with retailers and promoting and doing all those kinds of things. I still feel that
private label has great opportunity in front of it. I talked a little bit earlier about how retailers, if you look at
the retailers that are winning today, the one common thing they all have is successful private label
programmes, overall, in aggregate. Walmart, great private label, H-E-B in Texas, Publix in Florida, Kroger,
PetSmart, Tractor Supply, Chewy.com, even Amazon on some level, they all have winning private label
programmes. The other reason why I see there’s great opportunity in this health-and-wellness segment for
private label is it is lucrative for retailers.
I just wrote down an example, based on my tour last night. Look at Walmart. Walmart has a 13.2-ounce can.
That’s the old standby can. We’ve all fed that to our dogs over the years. Alpo and Pedigree are the leading
brands. You get Alpo for USD 0.85 and you can get Pedigree for USD 0.88 and you can pick up a can of Ol’
Roy for USD 0.66. As a consumer, she’s, “It looks the same, it’s USD 0.20 a can cheaper.” Gosh almighty, I
don’t know how much Walmart is making at USD 0.66 a can, but it cant be a heck of a lot. If you look to the
right, you see the same size can of Blue Buffalo and it’s USD 2.35. Next to that is a can of Walmart Pure
Balance that’s USD 1.44 a can. It’s something like USD 0.75 a can cheaper than Blue Buffalo, but, gosh
almighty, it’s USD 0.60 more than Alpo. I’ll tell you, to make a can of Pure Balance doesn’t cost you USD 0.60
more than Ol’ Roy, so these health-and-wellness products are extraordinarily lucrative for the retailers. They
already want to sell private label anyway, because it differentiates them, but this is a segment, these better-for-
you, these premium products that consumers want anyway, it’s been a great avenue for them to add additional
Private and confidential 9
margin. I happened to be around when Pure Balance was launched and they sold it for USD 1 a can. I would
have discussions all the time and I would say, “You’re selling it too cheap. Make the margin.” Walmart would
say, “Listen, we’re thinking of our consumer,” which they truly do and that’s their model.
Private label is important. These leading retailers want it and this particular segment, I don’t think they get
overly excited any more about selling Ol’ Roy at USD 0.66 a can, but I guarantee you they’re they’re happy
about selling Pure Balance at USD 1.44. Tractor Supply sells their 4Health brand at USD 1.49. PetSmart has
Authority at USD 1.69. Even Kroger has Beyond at USD 1.33 a can. Great, great margin opportunity, these are
great products, the consumers like them, and anyway that’s where I see the opportunity and what’s going on at
retail.
[00:56:05]
Q: What are your thoughts on Blue Buffalo, brand affinity and the influence of marketing? You touched on
this earlier, but the industry increasingly seems to be a marketing game – if I walk into Walmart, I may notice
competitor brands on the shelf, but I may not know anything about them, except that they’re next to Blue
Buffalo. Could you also touch on increased marketing aggressiveness from retailers who are trying to be more
successful in pet food private label?
WM: While retailers go about it differently, I’m not so sure the internet hasn’t equalled things out and made it
more effective, so some of the things at their disposal. I think you see a lot of activity these days around store
brands and how the retailers are able to support that. Everybody knows the famous Amazon technique where
you search for batteries and, in their mind, Eveready and Duracell don’t even exist, all they want to show you
is Basics. I think that technique is employed all the time. I didn’t get to a Tractor Supply, I went online last
night. There wasn’t one close by. I went online last night and I wanted to look up the 13.2-ounce price. It’s like
these other brands didn’t exist. The search took me right to their 4Health brand. I think they support their
brands significantly. Kroger does an awful lot of stuff. Kroger ran a full-page ad in People magazine on their
private label pet food. You see different approaches and different campaigns, for sure. I’m not going to tell you
that it takes the place of what these big branded guys can do. I did mention Blue Buffalo. You see them
regularly on TV, there’s no doubt about that. I know that’s a tough thing to fight, but it’s not like the retailers
don’t have weapons at their disposal and you do see them doing more and more and more.
The other thing, again, depending on the retailer, H-E-B, you know what, Wegmans is probably the best
example of that. Wegmans doesn’t play around with other sub-brands. It’s Wegmans brand. Everything is
Wegmans brand. Costco is another great example. It’s Kirkland Signature. They also get that halo of what they
stand for and there’s a heck of a lot of brand equity in that.
[00:59:21]
NH: Will, thank you for your time today. It was an excellent Interview and we got through a lot. Clients, if you
would like to speak to Will in a private call or meeting, please let your relationship manager know. Thank you,
clients, for joining Third Bridge Forum’s Interview today. Goodbye.
Transcription ends at 00:59:32 of the recorded material
Private and confidential 10