Century Pacific Food goes into pet food business

MANILA, Philippines — Century Pacific Food Inc., the listed food company of the Po family, is making its foray into the pet food business to capitalize on the fast growing consumer goods category.

Christopher Po, CNPF’s executive chairman, said pet ownership is growing not just in the Philippines but around the world.

“Pet food is one of the fastest growing consumer goods categories in the Philippines and around the world. With long-term trends such as rising incomes as well as demographic trends of people staying single longer or having children later, as well as people spending more time at home due to the pandemic, we see pet ownership on the rise,” Po said.

CNPF’s newly developed pet food brand is called ‘Goodest,” and will target the growing number of Filipino households caring for pets and treating them as family.

“The penetration of pet food is still very low in the Philippines versus our more affluent ASEAN neighbors. We expect this category to continue growing going forward,” Po said.

CNPF’s foray into pet food begins with an affordable cat food range.

“Its main products are all formulated with essential nutrients and minerals cats need for their daily food intake, meeting the gold standard in pet nutrition set by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (AAFCO),” the company said.

Alexander Lim, CNPF’s head of Innovations and general manager for Pet Food said more and more people are choosing to have pets.

There are newly married couples who are delaying having children, singles living alone in their condos especially during this pandemic and young families cultivating in their kids the values of care and responsibility.

“For them, pets are family and should be given the best care and nutrition possible within their reach,” Lim said.

CNPF said Goodest is now available in leading supermarket chains and online retail platforms nationwide.

The company’s entry in pet food is another step toward further diversifying CNPF’s portfolio, Po said.

In the past five years, CNPF has been aggressively beefing up its presence in emerging categories such as dairy and coconut and more recently, has entered the nascent yet fast-growing plant-based meat alternatives market with its new brand, ‘unMEAT.’

“Our entry into the pet category is another output of the company’s innovation thrust that led to recent new product launches. We are hopeful that this and other innovations will become future growth drivers for the company,” Po said.

CNPF continues to be on the lookout for opportunities to expand its business.

“We are always on the lookout for opportunities to expand our portfolio, whether organically or inorganically, but it needs to be purposeful,” Po said.