Mumbai: After the soft drinks market, Reliance Consumer Products Ltd, part of Mukesh Ambani’s retail empire is all set to venture into the $3.5 billion pet food market in India. According to various reports, Reliance is expected to offer its products at prices 30-50% lower than the current players through its own brand Waggies.
This marks the latest category Reliance aims to disrupt through its brute distribution and financial muscle, after the cola market through its Campa Cola acquisition, besides others in the packaged beverage segment.
Currently, the pet food market is dominated by players like Pedigree, Drools, Royal Canin, and Fidele, in a market expected to grow to $7 billion by 2028. This growth is primarily driven by the steady rise in the number of pet-owning households, which reached 3.2 crore in 2024.
Much of the market is unorganized, with some households choosing unbranded foods or feeding them homemade food. For Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance, this offers another opportunity to disrupt the market with its brute reach, finances and marketing muscle at the cost of profitability.
Though Reliance has had mixed success with Campa Cola, this category isn’t the same as cola. Competitive price points will matter, but that depends on how well it can translate on repeat purchases. Many pet owners, especially educated, higher-class urban households, continue to seek products based on their vets’ recommendations, and that’s a Reliance that the company has to address.
In the short term, Reliance could manage to capture a slice of the market, just like its tried-and-tested Jio formula. But pet food is no telecom- it needs a far more nuanced approach to the unique needs of Indian pet parents and their pets nutritional requirements. The existing players have spent years perfecting their products for the market- through collaborations with vets, distributors and feedback. How Reliance manages to keep the pets, their parents and their vets happy remains to be seen.
