Posted at 01 March 2018

Press release //


Diana Pet Food, the global leader and pioneer of high value solutions to improve pets’ well-being and owners’ satisfaction, increases its share in Yummypets. The initial investment in the online pet community took place in 2016.

With the phenomenon of ‘pet parenting’, pets have become full family members in many households. Many of today’s pet parents project their own human wishes and needs onto their pets. They expect to find products and services for their pets that are similar to those available to them. Consequently, the use of digital channels by dog and cat owners has become more and more popular and thus pet food has become an integral part of current digital & technological trends. In particular, Millennials (defined as those born between 1980 and 2000) are very active on social media. For example, 55 % of them follow at least one pet on social media.

Yummypets, a social network created for pet owners in 2012, understands this phenomenon. To date, it unites over one million pet lovers and social media profiles on its website that come from all over the world. Currently it attracts 100 million pages views per year. There have been three million pictures posted to date, and almost 60% of the traffic is generated by mobile applications.
 
After its initial investment in 2016, Diana Pet Food has decided to increase its participation in Yummypets. The value of Diana’s investment has not been disclosed. The two founders of Yummypets remain shareholders in the company.

Jean-Yves Parisot, President of Symrise Nutrition (Diana), explains the engagement in the social pet network
« With social and digital media activities expanding into the world of pets, our move illustrates our pioneering spirit to develop services that support our customers and thus improve owners’ and pet’s quality of life. »

Diana Pet Food has ambitions for Yummypets. While its current presence focuses on Europe, Yummypets aims to expand internationally, and will explore the North American market (the world’s biggest pet market), and then South American and Asian markets. With an increasingly rich content, it will offer stakeholders a platform for hosting digital applications that are targeted at pet owners.

“The support of Diana Pet Food will help us to structure our international expansion, accelerate our membership acquisition strategy and support our innovation program,” remarked Matthieu Glayrouse, CEO of Yummypets. “We couldn't be happier to join forces with Diana and Symrise.”

“Yummypets enables us to propose a wider range of services to our clients. In addition, it offers the opportunity to directly get in touch with end-consumers. It will allow us to test larger scale innovative solutions for the stakeholders in the pet market. This offer will complete Panelis, our innovative and pet-friendly measurement center, which provides unique insight into pets’ preferences and behaviors,” added Bertrand de Launay, CEO of Diana Pet Food.