Along with a range of brands including Red Lobster restaurants and Chicken of the Sea canned fish, Thai Union Group owns pet food companies. In the first quarter of this year, those pet food producers played an important role in Thai Union’s growth. Founded in 1977, Thai Union Group is a Thailand-based producer of seafood-based food products for people and pets.
Thai Union Group’s pet care sales increased 13.2% from a year earlier to THB4.0 billion (US$108 million) due to higher sales from the premium mix and price adjustment. Pet care delivered a gross profit margin of 25.7%, the highest level since the second quarter of 2022.
Overall for Thai Union in the first quarter, net profit increased 53.9% from 1Q23 adjusted net profit to THB1.2 billion (US$32 million) due to a healthier operating profit. Gross profit margin improved to 17.3%, with stronger gross profit margin across frozen, petare and value-added categories.
“Thai Union Group’s focus on our core business of Ambient, Frozen and PetCare has been instrumental in returning our business to growth,” said Thiraphong Chansiri, CEO of Thai Union Group, in a press release. “Our Group demonstrated great resilience during 2023 when we faced a challenging operating environment, and after seeing initial signs of a recovery in our performance in the final quarter of last year, I’m pleased to see that we have now emerged even stronger.”
Thai pet food market
Thailand ranks as the world's third-largest producer and exporter of pet food after Germany and the United States. According to the International Trade Center, Thailand is the top exporter of pet food in Asia. Its exports are valued at US$2.05 billion in 2021, an 81% increase compared to 2017. That puts the country behind only Germany (US$2.66 billion) and the U.S. (US$2.07 billion) in terms of global exports in 2021. Yet, considering Thailand’s total exports for 2021 reached a value of US$267.49 billion, pet food exports accounted for only 0.77% of that.
