Pet Product News - September 2017

BY JENNIFER BONCY

Several pet food manufac- turers pledged their com- mitment to the specialty channel and trumpeted their decision to cease selling products on Chewy.com—the major e-commerce site purchased by PetSmart this spring—at a gathering of executives from more than 30 pet specialty retail operations representing approximately 1,400 stores at a meeting during SuperZoo at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas on July 24.

Representatives from three major product manufacturers, Fromm Family Foods, Champion Petfoods and KLN Family Brands, attended the meeting by invitation from retailers who have been gathering informally during major trade shows since last year to discuss common concerns such as e-commerce pricing practices. The executives discussed their decision to pull products from Chewy.com—a move meant to give independent pet retailers a fair shot of competing at a time when mega-e-commerce sites are offering consumers discount pricing that brick-and-mortars cannot hope to match.

Charlie Nelson, president of KLN Family Brands in Per-ham, Minn., the maker of Nu-triSource, PureVita, Natural Planet and Tuffy’s brands, said the company is no stranger to making tough decisions in favor of its independent retail partners, having done so in the past by pulling product from retailers that Petco purchased. So when PetSmart announced its acquisition of Chewy.com, KLN was quick to respond, he said.

“Within 24 hours, we made
our decision,” Nelson said
about the company’s move to
remove its products from the
online seller. “We walked away
from a lot of business.”
He further pledged that
KLN would maintain its
e-commerce pricing at 10 per-
cent above its suggested retail

Companies Pledge Allegiance
to Independent Retailers

Manufacturers abandon PetSmart-owned Chewy.com to further support independent pet specialty retailers.

Michelle Granger of Champion Petfoods
addressed a gathering of independent
pet retailers at SuperZoo.

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