Petco CEO Ron Coughlin embraces the “continued premiumization” of pet products

Coughlin stressed the resilience of the industry and highlighted that strong demand has “helped” them avoid inventory issues.

Following Petco’s recent strong Q1 results release, the company chief talked to Yahoo Money about the “solid” situation of his company.

“The majority of our business is staples. Just like you don’t cut back on milk or eggs, pet parents don’t cut back on food for their pets,” he commented.

According to Coughlin, the industry is now seeing an upgrading of foods toward the most premium products. Petco is happy to follow this trend “even in this inflationary environment.”

In the first quarter of 2022, global sales of the company increased by 4.3% against the same period in 2021.

The strong demand for pet products has “helped” the manufacturer to avoid any inventory issues so far. “We don’t have that situation of having excess inventory on hand because of delays in Asia. So our inventory on hand pretty much matches up with the demand that we see coming.”

Coughlin also showed optimism about the good financial health of the pet industry. “Overall retail has been hit in recent months, but we think the pet category has really different dynamics than the rest of the retail landscape,” he concluded.

Sonia Romero