Purina PetCare leads market share in the United States, and Nestle executives expect the pet food division to continue growing this year, Nina Leigh Krueger, chief executive officer and president, Purina North America, said at the Consumer Analysts Group of New York (CAGNY) conference on Feb. 24 in Boca Raton, Florida, USA.

With pet product sales last year of more than CHF18 billion (US$19.2 billion) and profitability over 20%, Purina PetCare was Nestle’s second largest category, after coffee.

“This year we expect it to be double digits again as we cycle over pricing, but then we expect it to go to more historical norms around that 6 to 8% CAGR,” she said. “We also expect by the end of 2025 for it to be over US$57 billion here in the United States.”

Top pet food market shares in the U.S. 2022

In 2022, Purina PetCare products held the largest portion of U.S. market, Kruger said referring to retail sales data from Nielsen.

1. Purina – 29%
2. Mars – 17%
3. J.M. Smucker – 8%
4. Hill’s – 7%
5. Blue Buffalo – 6%
6. Private label – 8%
7. Others – 25%

Purina leads in several sectors within the pet category, she said.

“We're number one in the number of households that buy Purina products at 56 million…” she said. “We are number one in household loyalty or share of wallet, meaning that consumers spend more on Purina products than any other manufacturer in the category. And we're also number one in e-commerce.

“While those are all great metrics to have, what's really exciting is that we have accelerated our growth, and this has been driven by our strong brands. As you can see, we reached 15% growth last year. Whilst some of this was pricing, we also grew tons of volume as well.”

More about leading pet food companies

While Purina had the largest U.S. market share in 2022, Mars Petcare had the highest annual revenue worldwide in 2022, US$19 billion, according to Petfood Industry’s Top Companies Current Data. Nestlé Purina PetCare had an annual revenue of US$16.5 billion in 2021.