The Polish pet market in 2020
The pet market in Poland is one of the largest in the Central-Eastern European region. Since the late 90s, it has been growing at around 4-5% per year, based on historic sales at traditional pet shops and the growing role of e-commerce.
Traditional retail
Poland is a Mid-Eastern European country with a population of 38.5 million. In 2019, its GDP per capita (PPP) was $33,800 (€28,600), slightly higher than that of Portugal.
The Polish pet market is dominated by traditional pet shops (around 2,700), making it similar to the Italian pet market. On the other hand, in Poland more than 240 shops belonging to the eight nationwide chain stores have started to cooperate in some way. In 2019, the total pet care industry in Poland generated $1,258 billion (€1,062 billion) in sales, which makes it a regional leader.
Pet populations
In 2019, there were around 7.7 million dogs and
6.6 million cats living in Polish households. There are also significant numbers of other pets: an estimated 1.2 million birds, 0.4 million aquaria, 1.1 million small mammals and 0.2 million reptiles.
Cats rule!
After years of market domination by dogs, cat food producers and distributors were satisfied with the developments in 2019. The cat food segment became the largest in the market, growing faster year on year than the dog food segment, and generated $466.4 million (€394.1 million) in sales value. This follows the Eastern European trend of cat products dominating all pet categories in terms of sales value.
It was to be expected. In the Polish pet market, there has been dynamic growth in the high-quality cat food available at traditional pet stores and in the e-commerce channel. As cat owners and retailers know, cats are very fussy pets, so food promotions are not always successful. The manufacturers’ answer is to launch new products that meet customers’ expectations. So finding the highest quality food for fussy cats is no longer a problem in Poland.
Dog food growth continues
Dog food sales value continues to increase, but not as fast as it did a decade ago, nor as fast as the current cat food segment. The dog food market nationwide (supermarkets, discount stores, etcetera) is still dominated by low and semi-medium quality food. But there is an interesting trend in the dog food segment which may change the situation in the future.
A growing number of small and miniature dogs are being treated by their owners as part of the family. This may well lead to increased sales of high-quality food in traditional pet shops. On the other hand, small and miniature dogs generally eat less food. Even so, the dog food segment generated $453.7 million (€383.3 million) in sales value in 2019.
The value difference between the (wet plus dry) dog and cat food categories has reached $12.7 million (€10.7 million), with the cat food segment leading.
E-commerce in COVID-19 times
The Polish pet market is still generally very traditional. Nonetheless, a growing number of traditional pet stores are beginning to explore an omnichannel strategy. Early adopters of this approach in Poland were pet chain store owners, who began to cooperate in the e-commerce channel a few years ago.
The COVID-19 lockdown accelerated pet shop owners’ activities. Facing the crisis, more of them came to understand the important role of online marketing and omnichannel selling. A growth rate of more than 20% year on year is now forecast for online channel sales of pet care products in Poland.