Diana pet food – Interview

PETS International (PI):
What influence has this takeover had on both Symrise and DIANA Pet Food?

Rémi Cristoforetti (RC): The joining of DIANA and Symrise is a synergistic combination of two success stories. DIANA Pet Food has mainly benefited from Symrise’s consumer insight expertise, enhanced analytical capabilities and unique skills in flavouring and top notes application, while Symrise can benefit from DIANA Pet Food’s know-how in cat and dog palatability drivers, understanding of pet feeding behaviour and pet food market knowledge. The combined strengths of these two global leaders result in a strong value-adding partner for developing pet food performance by meeting the needs of both pets and pet owners.

PI: How exactly does DIANA Pet Food benefit from Symrise’s consumer insight expertise?

RC: Market trends have always fuelled DIANA Pet Food developments. The shift to pet parenting, resulting in a stronger emotional bond between owners and pets, forces pet food market players to increasingly consider pet owners’ expectations when designing foods.

DIANA Pet Food regularly conducts market surveys with pet owners to better understand how they perceive their pet’s satisfaction. At Symrise a team of nearly forty Sensory and Consumer Insight (SCI) specialists measure consumer usage, attitude and purchase criteria. DIANA Pet Food can now rely on new and robust methodologies to conduct additional explorative research to understand consumer’s expectations, met and unmet needs and attitudes towards pet food. We are thus able to provide pet food manufacturers with an accurate analysis of pet owner typology, both locally and globally. This constitutes a solid starting point to help them position their brands and work together to define the best palatability solutions, depending on their targets.

PI: Which breakthrough may be expected from DIANA Pet Food in the years to come?

RC: DIANA Pet Food will continue to develop solutions targeting both pet and pet owner satisfaction. The latest research conducted by our measurement experts has recently led to the launch of new methodologies particularly relevant to measuring the ‘emotional palatability’ of a pet food. The Liking Test and the Panelis Happiness Index™, available at Panelis, allow for assessing pet behaviours and emotions induced by food with criteria linked to owners’ perception of such answers.

At the end of 2015, DIANA Pet Food will strengthen its capabilities in pet food performance evaluation with the opening of the Pet Sens’ Innov’. This unique innovation centre, located on the Panelis site in France, will bring together the most innovative measurement technologies, such as video, tracking, acoustic recording systems, to further investigate pet feeding behaviour. Furthermore, internal collaboration with Symrise flavour experts and SCI specialists combined with the findings from our collaborations with external research partners, such as Opertech Bio and BRAIN, will allow us to expand our range of palatability solutions. 

We are, for instance, planning to enrich the SPF FeelGoodProgram portfolio with a new collection of palatants with distinctive olfactory signatures, for dry food, wet food and treats. Providing various culinary notes to the food while ensuring palatability performance for animals, these solutions, attractive to pets and their owners, are particularly adapted to making mealtime an enjoyable moment.

With Vit2be, DIANA Pet Food will also continue to develop its offer in the field of pet health and nutrition with new solutions for ageing and weight management scheduled to be available in 2016.

We will also reinforce our position in the pet food natural protection market by extending Videka’s portfolio of natural antioxidants and natural antimicrobials. 

In order to bring the growing offer always closer to customers, DIANA Pet Food will pursue its industrial expansion with a specific focus on the Asian area.

PI: Does DIANA Pet Food have intentions to enter the pet care market?

RC: Being part of the Symrise Group has opened up new opportunities for DIANA Pet Food, pet care being one of them. The pet care market represents $7 billion (€6.4 billion) worldwide, with 50% in the cat litter category. Symrise’s expertise in fragrances and consumer insight, combined with DIANA Pet Food’s knowledge of the pet industry and Panelis’ expertise in pet behaviour assessment, has brought a unique and new expertise to the market. 

A dedicated team of Symrise and DIANA Pet Food is currently structuring an offer for cat litter manufacturers. Unique solutions addressing pet well-being and pet owners’ expectations are expected to be presented to cat litter players at the beginning of 2016.