RCL Foods is better known for Ouma rusks and Selati sugar than for dog food, but it has been in the pet aisle for a while, with Bobtail and Canine Cuisine. Now it wants a much bigger shelf. In March it agreed to pay R695 million for Martin & Martin, the business behind Husky, Pamper, Beeno and Bob Martin, and last week the Competition Commission recommended that the deal go ahead, with conditions.
The gap RCL is filling is wet food. Its own range leans heavily on dry food, while Martin & Martin brings wet dog and cat food, biscuits, treats and pet care, the parts of the category RCL describes as fast-growing and where it has had limited exposure. RCL's pitch leans on what it calls the humanisation of pets, and a growing community of "pet parents" who care more and more about how well, and how long, their animals live.
What the Commission asked for
The Commission does not get the final word on a deal like this one. It recommends, the Competition Tribunal rules, and the Tribunal has not ruled yet. The recommendation comes with two sets of conditions, one to protect competitors and one to protect workers.
For competitors, the merged business has to keep its existing co-manufacturing agreements, make factory capacity available to other companies on fair commercial terms and keep the relevant factories running for a set period. It also may not tie or bundle products together in ways that squeeze rivals. For workers, there can be no retrenchments, of managers or of anyone else, for a set period after the deal takes effect.
RCL had already said as much in March. It expected no job losses, and said Martin & Martin would keep working from its existing sites. The Commission has turned both into conditions.
Buying in a hard year
RCL is spending while its own profit shrinks. Profit fell from R1.65 billion to R768 million in the year to June, and the dividend was cut by a third. Chairman George Steyn called it "a challenging consumer and operating environment", and in the same results described wet pet food as an attractive category to be in.
RCL is not the only South African company chasing pet owners. Woolworths bought Absolute Pets in 2024, Spar has Pet Storey and the Shoprite group runs Petshop Science. Those are retailers selling pet food; RCL wants to own more of what goes into the bowl. Whether Husky and Pamper are part of that is now up to the Tribunal.
