SPECIFIC® The Power of marine omega-3
to promote companion animal health
One of Dechra’s key therapy areas is its range of veterinarian dedicated dog and cat foods. This range offers targeted special care diets that provide the optimum in nutritional support for pets with illnesses and diets for everyday nutritional needs. Branded ‘Specific’, we have marketed the range since January 2008 when we acquired VetXX Holdings A/S.
We have implemented a programme of revitalising the Specific range; the initial focus being on refreshing the cat range with improved recipe, design and packaging. The diets support some of our key pharmaceutical products with a look and feel that belongs to the Dechra family of products providing a useful cross over to our other key therapy areas.
Recipe Development
The refreshed look involves a development in the recipes that introduce:
- natural antioxidants;
- chelated minerals for better bioavailability; and
- further improvements to the palatability.
There have been further ingredient advances that reflect our ongoing investment in utilising up to date nutritional knowledge that will support good pet health. We have included Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) certified fish within these updates, to strengthen our commitment to a sustainable future.
Design
The historic design of the Specific packaging had been in existence since 2005; a newly updated design brings a fresh looking, simplified approach and reflects our pharmaceutical image but retains elements of the original branding. This builds upon our strong veterinarian brand identity and enables us further to emphasise our dedication to this channel. The updated design differentiates it from the everyday foods making it a strong brand identifier.
As an exciting part of the refresh we have updated and refocused our pet owner websites. This provides easy accessibility and functionality for pet owners looking to discover quality nutritional advice that enhances their pet’s life.
Packaging
In order to strengthen our sustainability position and as part of our environmental road map we have rationalised our pack sizes which will:
- reduce our use of plastics by 8%;
- reduce our freight on the cat product range by 35%; and
- reduce our carbon footprint by 50,000 kg CO2 equivalent.
Included with the sustainability benefits are some great innovations for the pet owner, such as:
- a new easy open pack utilising a laser scored tear line;
- a new reclose system employing Sensi Grip® seals; and
- improved barrier film that exploits up to the minute developments in packaging technology.
Next Phase
Once the cat refresh is fully launched we will commence a programme to update the dog diets with similar innovations.
The Future
We will continue to emphasise the importance of feeding pets with diets with nutritional advantages over other pet foods and continue the exciting developments with additional category leading recipe innovations and packaging design.
We are also revitalising the product pipeline creating closer links to our pharmaceutical heritage. We will continue to innovate to improve the growth and contribution from this key therapy area and will continue to provide veterinarian dedicated support which is a cornerstone to Specific’s success.