Pet brands update identities and formulas to target nutrition-conscious owners

While Belgian company Versele-Laga has become Versele and Australian brand PetLab has renamed itself PawLab, several other brands have introduced visual or packaging refreshes in recent months. These include Czech brand Carnilove, US-based My Perfect Pet and Ark Naturals, and Brazilian brand Natoo.

Brands that stand out

Although the changes reflect marketing goals, the trend is also linked to how pet brands differentiate within increasingly crowded shelf spaces in physical retail and products displayed online.

“Many brands are focusing more on refreshing their identity, packaging and communication to remain modern and relevant in an increasingly competitive market,” Gert Cooreman, founder of pet industry consultants, GC Consulting, tells GlobalPETS. 

Clean labels and simpler portfolios

Perhaps the most notable trend is towards cleaner, more neutral packaging combined with an emphasis on transparency through clear label communication.

One example is Carnilove, a premium pet food brand and one of the flagship labels of VAFO Praha. It announced a new identity and restructured its product portfolio in April to achieve consistency and simplification. 

“We needed to unify our presence across all markets by adopting a modern, more confident brand language,” Karolína Šifaldová, Junior Brand Manager at Carnilove, tells GlobalPETS. 

“We wanted our look to truly reflect our core mission of crafting food for pets that is close to their natural needs, while ensuring our communication and packaging are consistent and easy to understand everywhere,” she adds. 

The changes, which comprise more than 100 SKUs across snacks and dry and wet food, focus on formulation, highlighting main ingredients, protein sources and percentages, as well as specific nutritional claims. 

Building trust

These choices are aimed at increasing confidence in the brand, Šifaldová explains. “When you are buying super premium food, the packaging is the first thing that builds trust. We created a much clearer design with simple illustrations, highlighting the most important benefits right on the front,” she says.

According to Yuichi Ota, Partner at the Singapore-based consulting and investment firm YCP Group, the wave of rebranding is also a move to follow the structural changes the pet industry has been undergoing – mainly in the pursuit of distancing its products from a commodity concept and incorporating human healthcare parallels.

“Brands built around function, price or convenience do not speak to an owner who is making decisions as a carer, not a buyer. Identity refreshes are often attempts to close that emotional gap,” Ota says.

He also draws attention to regional differences in branding and messaging. Especially in Asia, he says that food safety is key, as credibility is a dominant purchase driver. While in developed markets, “ecological credentials and clean ingredient narratives are moving from differentiators to expected attributes”, Ota explains. 

Meanwhile, Brazil-based premium brand Natoo Pet Foods launched new packaging in June in a bid to place its certified sustainability record and Brazilian heritage at the heart of the brand story it promotes in the US.

Fresh, science-backed differentiation

A similar approach guided the rebranding of My Perfect Pet, producer of gently cooked dog and cat food owned by California-based Antelope Pets. The company redesigned its packaging to clearly signpost the key ingredients, proteins, vegetables, vitamins and minerals in each recipe.

“As the fresh pet food category continues to grow and evolve, we wanted our branding to better reflect what’s actually inside each recipe,” Katie Lilly, Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) at My Perfect Pet, tells GlobalPETS. 

“Our products are made with fresh, raw vegetables and high-quality proteins, and we felt the packaging needed to communicate that more clearly and immediately on the shelf,” she adds.

The rebranding also comprises redesigned boxes with two display orientations focusing on facilitating shelf display in store.

According to the CMO, packaging claims are in line with the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO)’s updated Pet Nutrition Facts regarding format and label language. 

Another brand under the Antelope Pets umbrella, Ark Naturals, specializing in pet oral health, also announced modernized packaging across its full product line in May. The message now focuses on science-backed claims behind its ingredients, citing clinical research and statistics from relevant studies. 

Beyond the label

Companies are changing more than just aesthetics, but also looking at formulation and the positioning of their offerings. In Carnilove’s case, changes have reached its portfolio, as the brand expands its cat food options to target the growing number of cat owners looking for higher quality food.

Additionally, My Perfect Pet has introduced eight-ounce bars to guide pet owners towards serving measured portions. Both brands have modified their formulas to avoid allergies. While Carnilove has gone completely free of chicken meat and chicken fat and introduced recipes without grains or potatoes, My Perfect Pet has crafted its formulas without any dried legumes, beans or chickpeas. 

Purr & Meow, the sister brand of UK-based natural dog food maker Pooch & Mutt – which itself rebranded under the tagline ‘for all breeds & needs’ in January – reformulated its products and rebranded in July with a view to spotlighting functional ingredients in its two refreshed ranges, Primal and Superfoods. A particular focus is gut health, which has become a major priority for consumers, with highlighted ingredients including prebiotics and postbiotics, psyllium husk and Mojave yucca.

Ark Naturals, on the other hand, has opted for launching a new direct-to-consumer (DTC) website featuring educational resources and personalized product recommendations.

Creating a master brand

Belgium-based pet food and care manufacturer Versele-Laga changed its name to Versele in May, during Interzoo 2026.

Corporate Brand Manager Sarah Lanckman tells GlobalPETS that the simplification helps the company to build a “stronger, more recognizable consumer master brand that can support our growth across categories, markets and channels”, while it aspires to international expansion.

“Consumer recognition played an important role, but increasing awareness was the key driver. While we have strong recognition within the pet industry and among trade partners, brand awareness of our corporate brand among end consumers is still relatively low,” she explains. 

According to Lanckman, the company deliberately kept the strongest part of its former name to ensure continuity and recognition, while its packaging approach “will also make sure the category brands remain clearly recognizable”. 

Versele’s ambition is that the company is easily perceptible across its many brands, such as Opti Life, NutriBird, Complete, Nature, Prestige and Oropharma, enabling it to create deeper consumer relationships beyond product purchase and encourage consumers to explore more of its portfolio.

Trademark issues

In the case of PetLab, an Australian producer of plant-based pet cleaning and grooming products, the change of name to PawLab after six years of operation is connected to bureaucracy. “After years of trying, we weren’t able to secure our trademark in Australia under that name,” Tyron Lazar-Tromp, Founder and Head of Growth, said in a statement.

In PawLab, the company registered the closest name possible. “This matters because it means we can now grow the way we’ve always wanted. We’re finally free to launch revolutionary pet products in new categories,” he said, citing coat care and grooming, natural pet supplements and new cleaning innovations. 

Now, the company is rolling out the new name across packaging and social media.

According to Cooreman, simplification around one master brand is a way to reduce costs and inefficiencies from both a marketing and operational perspective creating “stronger recognition and a more authentic connection with customers”.

It also plays a role in reducing decision anxiety for customers, Ota points out, with e-commerce platforms also rewarding brand page clarity.

In conclusion, the current wave of rebranding reflects already established trends in the pet industry around health, nutrition and transparency, and the expectation is that this move towards simplification, both aesthetically and in terms of portfolio, will continue to be a feature of the market.