Australia's Real Pet Food Co. (RPF) became US$161.2 million (A$242 million thereabouts) bigger in June 2023 after its existing investment partners from Singapore and China made an equity investment to expand its chilled pet food business.
The 29-year-old pet food company's most recent capital infusion came from global investment firm Temasek, which is headquartered in Singapore, China, and food space-focused private equity firm Hosen Capital, and China's largest private agribusiness firm New Hope Group. This group of Asia-Pacific investors became RPF's owners in 2017 when they bought RPF from Quadrant Private Equity.
With about 17 brands of dog and cat food under its name (Ivory Coat, Billy + Margot, Trilogy, Fussy Cat and Dr. B’s, to name a few) and six manufacturing plants in Australia, RPF considers itself the largest independent pet food manufacturer in the country and in New Zealand, and among the top 20 in the world.
With its latest capital raise, RPF plans to expand its business roadmap that will see the hiring of additional strategic personnel and the launch of more products to keep its market leadership when it comes to fresh, chilled and frozen pet food for dogs and cats.
Thai consumer goods manufacturer eyes pet market
Lion Corporation Thailand, a 56-year-old consumer product manufacturing company, wants to be part of Thailand's massive pet food industry, the Bangkok Post reported.
At present, the company offers several pet care products from Japan under the brand Lion Pet Care. The plan, however, is to expand into pet food either by working with Thailand's makers of private pet food labels or by producing their own dog and cat food from scratch. In the meantime, Lion is open to importing pet food from its Japanese sources.
“Lion has been in the Japanese pet food business for decades, and we believe it is the right time to enter the Thai pet market, which is substantial and continues to grow each year," Boonyarit Mahamontri, the company president, told Bangkok Post. "People are willing to spend on pet products in Thailand, even with relatively higher prices."
Lion joins a growing list of companies from other industries in Thailand making a beeline for the pet industry which is currently experiencing an explosive growth. Late in 2022, major fish canning companies in Thailand also announced their plans to go into pet food production. The Ministry of Commerce's Department of Business Development estimates that the Thai pet market will grow at an average annual rate of 8.4% to 66.748 billion baht (US$1.93 billion) in 2026.
