According to an announcement by L Catterton on 20 June, the investment company has made a $60 million investment in Drools Pet Food Private Limited. Due to rising pet adoptions and increasing urbanization, the Indian pet food sector experienced severe growth, so that L Catterton expects an annual growth of 20% across the next 5 years bringing the value to $1.2 billion by 2028.
Drools will use the investment to strengthen its position in India’s pet food market. The company could already quadruple its turnover across the last 3 years.
“Drools is dedicated to driving sustainable growth,” explained Drools founder Fahim Sultan. “We have built a strong foundation for the future by embracing responsible business practices while delivering high-quality pet food products, and believe that partnering with L Catterton will enable us to enhance our position in the market as we continue our journey towards positively impacting the pet food sector.
“L Catterton’s expertise and ability to create value for companies in the sector is well known across the industry and will help us unlock a new phase of growth,” he continued. “We are keen to leverage its consumer insights, operating know-how, as well as commercial network to further strengthen our brands and recruit talent. India’s developing pet market continues to mature across metros, as well as Tier 1 and Tier 2 cities, and we see many more years of secular growth ahead.”
Drools provides several products under its main brand Drools® such as other brands like Meat Up, Kitty Yum, Pure Pet, Canine Creek.
“What truly differentiates Drools is its ability to manufacture high-quality products across the price ladder and make them available to pet parents via every relevant channel, be it online on Amazon or Flipkart, or offline in over 34,000 points of sale spanning specialty vet shops, veterinary clinics and general trade stores,” stated Anjana Sasidharan, a partner of LCatterton Asia. “Its focus on product quality has helped it become a brand that has gained a reputation for providing high protein content at value-for-money price points, cultivating a very loyal base of customers. This is an exciting time to be entering the country’s pet food market, which we believe is at an inflection point, and we look forward to working closely with the Drools team to further scale its business.”
The new investment is part of L Catterton’s strategy participating in the pet food industry and represents its first step into India.
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