Pataya Food Group (PFG), the producer and marketer of Nautilus canned fish, is forging a joint venture with Thonglor Pet Hospital Co as part of its expansion into the lucrative pet food business.
According to PFG executive director Sudatip Kiatsrichart, the company is in the process of establishing a joint venture with Thonglor Pet Hospital Co.
The venture will allow the two companies to share knowledge, networking and production experience, while enhancing the group's pet food export capability, said Ms Sudatip.
A new pet food brand is scheduled to launch next year, she said.
"The joint venture is part of the company's three-year plan spanning 2023-25, which aims to build the pet food business to become a strong second pillar for PFG," said Ms Sudatip.
The three business pillars comprise human food, pet food and an innovation platform.
Chalongradh Kongsarai, assistant vice-president of Nautilus Food (Thailand) Ltd, said the pet food business now contributes 35-40% to PFG's revenue, but more than 90% of the pet food business belongs to an original equipment manufacturing (OEM) business.
"Under the group's three-year business plan, we aim to make more than half of the pet food revenue for our own brand," Ms Sudatip said.
To achieve that ambitious goal, the group wants to ramp up the expansion of its pet food business via its own investment and joint ventures.
"Following the pandemic, we revised our business plan to focus more on the regional market, particularly China and Southeast Asia, during the next three years," she said.
The combined market value for pet food in Thailand, Vietnam and China is US$30 billion per year.
Thailand's pet food industry is estimated to be worth 40 billion baht per year, with average annual growth of 10%.
Founded in 1979, PFG originally produced seafood products for OEM customers.
The company started its own brand, called Nautilus, two decades ago before expanding to cat food under the Regalos brand in 2018, then adding a ready-to-eat food brand under the Extend brand a year ago.
According to Mr Chalongradh, in addition to Thailand, the company recently made Regalos cat food available in China via modern trade and online channels.
This follows expansion into Malaysia at the end of last year.
"There is huge potential to expand the pet food business into overseas markets because of the changing lifestyle of the middle class," he said.
"More people are staying single or creating single families."
Given the high economic growth in Vietnam, the company is scheduled to start selling Regalos wet pet food via modern trade and online channels in that country next month.
In addition to cat food, the company is also expanding its product line to dog food next year.
"We believe pet food will become one of the strong pillars to drive our group's revenue growth over the next few years," said Ms Sudatip.
