apparently burns have already made them remove their foods from argos


Argos sells grey market pet food on line

16th January 2012



Retailer Argos is selling a large range of petfood marketed as an on-line exclusive in its clearance sale. Among the brands on sale are Hill’s, Eukanuba, IAMS, Wafcol, Royal Canin, Applaws, Purina and Arden Grange.

Manufacturers contacted by pbwnews expressed surprise that their products were on sale via the Argos website, and sources have revealed that a single distributor had released the stock to the retailer.

The grey market (also known as parallel market) refers to trade that, although not illegal, is unofficial, unauthorised and unintended by the original manufacturer.

In a statement, Argos said: “We have recently extended our range of pet care products, and pet food is part of range extension. The pet food has been available to customers on line for a couple of weeks and we are currently monitoring sales to see which products perform well for us.”

Argos would not reveal who its supplier was.

Burns Pet Nutrition was among the manufacturers shocked to discover their products on offer via the website. The company immediately got in touch with Argos and managed to pull all its products. Burns’ operational manager Neil Smith told Pet Business World that Burns was a strong supporter of the independent pet trade and looked after the local high street, and so the company acted at once to get its products withdrawn from the website.
“It’s not where we want to be,” he said.

In total, 76 dry dog foods and one dry cat food product are on offer on the website.



This is not the first instance of grey market pet food sales. In 2007, Tesco obtained unofficial stocks of Procter & Gamble’s Eukanuba specialist pet food. The decision angered P&G, leading to a bitter dispute. P&G had told Tesco to stop selling the brand, which it claimed Tesco had sourced through grey channels on the Continent.

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OMG! I can't but can believe this is happening! I suppose it was only a matter of time. All those manufacturers will not be happy at all as their customer base of the true pet trade will be so p****d off! Its difficult enough I would have thought in this day and age for the independent pet shops to keep their heads above water without the big boys like Argos muscling in on the game.

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mel

People will go to their local pet shop for advice on what is best type of food for my dog, how much to feed etc etc, then buy from Argos cos its cheaper sad times for pet shops

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Few will prefer to buy from Agros, while others will continue to buy from pet shops.

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