French pet food maker Royal Canin opens new plant in Maharashtra with ₹100 crore investment
Royal Canin, the French pet food maker, on Wednesday said it has opened Asia's second-largest fully operational packaging plant in Bhiwandi, Maharashtra with an investment of ₹100 crore.
The new packaging center, which is Royal Canin’s first facility in India, will have automatic packing machines and associated utilities installed for conversion of bulk products into retail packs catering to Indian pet owners requirements. The company didn't rule out the possibility of exports from the facility in future.
«India is a place where the pet food category is emerging, we believe it is going to continue to grow. The plant will help us localise and have a more flexible approach towards the market,» Cecile Coutens, global president of Royal Canin told ET.
The Indian pet care industry is worth $700 million and is growing at 15% annually. India has over 31 million pet dogs and 2.44 million pet cats, the fifth highest pet population in the world, however the packaged food penetration is small catering to only 5% of the calorie intake of the pets, while it is as high as over 90% in Europe.
Royal Canin plans to crack the Indian market by using smaller packs and promoting them to the veterinarians and breeders. The company globally has 750 formulas for cats and dogs.
«The needs of cats and dogs are very different from humans, for example — the adult dogs requires seven times more protein, 12 times more calcium than human, their life span is very different from human, we have formulas for every lifestyle, lifestage, there are
