To think pet food manufacturers are profiting massively

[Fleetheart]

Before the pandemic I always used to be able to buy 3 x cat food for special offer prices equivalent to £3.75 a box. Now there are no special offers, it’s £4.50 a box. This is a massive increase. Is it purina who are profiting here or is it our supermarkets? Either way it’s not really fair is it?

Lots of offers on catfood at Asda

If they don't have the type that your cats eat, and I know how fussy they can be, the other supermarkets or places mentioned on this thread might have.

If it's Felix AGAIL they eat, the 40/44 big boxes usually work out cheaper and you can get these in Farm Foods for 2 for £22 and we get leaflets through our door offering money off vouchers.

It makes no business sense to give offers on products in high demand. If it did, then Apple would have iPhones half price on launch day.

Supermarkets have been the busiest and almost only retail option during lockdown. Therefore they don't need to entice customers with offers and loss leaders as the customers were there ready and waiting, willing to pay anything to feed their families and pets and keep the loo roll shelf stacked high.

Are you really saying if someone said they would pay you £20 more in profit you wouldn’t take it..... sorry to sound bad but that is business.

If you don’t want to spend in supermarkets don’t. Go to the independent local stores - shops selling cleaning products, health and beauty, pet food have all had the option of opening throughout.

You need to shop around, look at alidi, own brands etc. however the cost of everything has gone up, some manufacturers have had to shut for a while, reduce their staff on the production floor. Increased PPE, pritective screens etc, transport gone up considerably as demand has gone up. This cost of course will be oassed onto the customer, no business is in business not to make money. Most of the time Supermarkets offers are done to entice you to come in and spend on other things. Covid has had a huge knock on affect on everything.

@BarbaraofSeville thanks for tips

I get my purina from amazon

[quote Fleetheart]@2CatsAndCounting; that’s precisely my point - people are spending more in supermarkets; increased volume so no need to increase profit margin as well.[/quote]
You don’t have a clue how business works, do you?

Yeah, people are spending more and supermarkets have been busier, which means they have to take on more staff which all require training (hiring and initial training of one staff member is in the region of several hundred pounds, by the way).

They have to negotiate with manufacturers and delivery teams who will also have put their prices up due to instability and staffing issues.

It’s not as simple as “more people = more money”. None of the supermarkets will be making a killing because the extenuating circumstances, increased staffing, training and buying costs, will be eating up a lot of any potential extra profits.

YABU
Offers were stopped because people were bulk buying.

We buy our dog food from Pets at Home or a local supplier when they're open (reduced service due to Covid) and our pet food costs have stayed the same.

No special offers on dog food either, 12kg sack is up £10! I've switched to Asda own brand for wet food though

Err @heartsonacake; I do have just a little idea about how businesses work; and I can assure you supermarkets are set to make a killing this year. It sounds like you have no idea at all. Tesco is forecast to make an extra £300 Million extra Profit (not sales) this year. Most from extra volume and margin. Profit excludes costs as you will know .

I haven't paid anything more for pet food. In fact, it's the only thing that hasn't increased in price! All the usual offers are still available for me - maybe it depends what brands you buy and where you shop?

I shop at Morrisons and buy Felix cat food and Harringtons dog food - I've bought them weekly since lockdown and have never paid full price. I also found a 20% discount code for Harringtons online and managed to buy 8 weeks worth of dog food for less than £30.

You just need to shop around.

I used jollies during the lockdown but the courier charges were quite steep so I did a big bulk buy. Thanks for the tip of zooplus. I’ve also bought in bulk direct from Lily’s kitchen - they’ve had some good offers - it’s expensive, but my dog deserved a treat when she was stuck with just one walk a day.

I agree it's annoying. I never buy branded items at full price because they are always on offer but when you only want to go to one supermarket (especially at the start of lockdown) you had to pay their prices.
However I would much rather see their profits go to their staff in wage increases rather than the ceo back pocket.

I stand by everything I said, OP, including that you have no idea how business works. If you actually read the article you got the headline from you’d know it was pre-tax profits.

When a shop sells for example, pet food for full price which is maybe £3 then this is the rrp, it factors in all costs, transport, retail, profit etc. An offer is just that, less profit to be made but increases sales with still the same overheads. When offers are taken off it doesnt mean that anyone is making more money, its the same as it was before the offer!

Asda seems to have roll back for pet food. So not bulk buys but I have saved eg 50p from a £4 bag of dog food

"So now I am paying 20% more for cat food. And so if that’s the same for all food, who is profiteering from this?"
You need to change the way you are viewing it. You are not losing out now, you were benefitting previously by the special offer.

No-one is profiteering. Definition of profiteer is to 'make or seek to make an excessive or unfair profit, especially illegally.'

I'm saving a fortune...I was buying livefood every few weeks but when postage got slow I stocked up on roaches and started my own colony. Now I don't need to buy roaches. And my tarantulas have endless food. I just need to order fruit flies occasionally for the babies and I've not seen a change in prices for them.

I use zooplus too and buy gourmet cat food at £29 for 96 packets. The zooplus offer is still the same now before and after the lockdown. Delivery is free if you spend over £30 and saves space in my 80 limited items shopping trolley on my Tesco delivery. Bags of dried iams cat food are much cheaper too. Pets at home online also do delivery so worth looking on there what their offers are at the moment.

I buy these from Purina. I buy two at once for free delivery or if you only want one just add a packet of dreamies or something.

@NotEverythingIsBlackandWhite

"So now I am paying 20% more for cat food. And so if that’s the same for all food, who is profiteering from this?" You need to change the way you are viewing it. You are not losing out now, you were benefitting previously by the special offer.

No-one is profiteering. Definition of profiteer is to 'make or seek to make an excessive or unfair profit, especially illegally.'

This

There is no "fairness" in a capitalist economy.

What's you're after is socialism.

I shop around, use Quidco too for cash back and stock up when it's free delivery/extra cash back/special offer

@heartsonacake, how does the fact it’s pre tax profits make any difference; extra operating costs have been removed and that’s what you were maintaining made the difference?