Recently, my colleague, John Volk wrote about the competitiveness within the pet food market, the largest segment of the pet market. I would like to expand on his comments.
We have all seen the humanization of our pets, which now includes the humanization of the food we give them. Fresh and frozen food represents one of the fastest growing pet food segments. Companies like Fresh Pet, Farmer’s Dog, Ollie, Nom Nom and Just Food for Dogs to name a few, are strong players in this market. The gloves are now off. Pet food behemoths including Mars’ Royal Canin and General Mills through its Blue Buffalo brand both have recently announced new fresh food products. In addition, back in February 2025, Hills announced the acquisition of Care TopCo Pty Ltd., an Australian company marketing the Prime100 brand of fresh pet food.
According to NIQ data, the fresh/frozen pet food segment grew +16.1% in dollars and +15.8% in unit sales in 2024. NIQ data shows that the fresh/frozen market is still small, representing just 3.6% of the total pet food market. While small, the growth rates are difficult to ignore, and the advertising and marketing expenditure reflects this. Not a day goes by without seeing a TV ad for the Farmer’s Dog brand, some of the best ads on TV.
The race is on to capture market share in the premium pet food segment. Who will be next to enter this market? More importantly, will anyone produce better ads than the Farmer’s Dog?
Randy Freides
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