Give the "hairy boy" a decent farewell
The pet funeral industry is quietly emerging
As the number of pets increases, what to do after a pet dies becomes a problem.
Recently, pet funeral institutions have gradually entered people's field of vision. In addition to burying pets after death, owners have another choice.
A pet funeral agency in Weifang has been in business for just 5 months, and more than a dozen people have come to consult and want to join, and the business has even expanded to other places.
Text/film reporter Zhang Zilu
Trainee reporter Wang Jiatong
pet funeral slowly
Integrate into city life
After 1995, Xu Yumao told reporters that he likes small animals very much, and he also keeps small animals. He can't accept the way of burying his pet after death, so when he saw the pet funeral industry on Douyin, he I hit it off with my partner and invested about 120,000 yuan in May this year to open a pet funeral shop named Kite Chong.
Xu Yumao basically learned the industry operation model from the Internet. His agency can provide pets and their owners with services such as pick-up, grooming, farewell ceremonies, cremation and other services.
In terms of cost, the price of pets weighing less than 10 catties is 680 yuan, and the fee increases by 100 yuan for every 10 catties of weight.
There are two employees in Xu Yumao’s store, one is in charge of transportation and the other is in charge of grooming. The wages are settled on a per-time basis. Due to environmental protection factors, the burning process is also outsourced to others. After the cost of each pet, the profit is more than 40%.
At present, they are still in their infancy, mainly through online publicity and hospital cooperation. At present, the monthly profit is about 3,000 yuan to 4,000 yuan.
Xu Yumao said: "Although I only worked for 5 months, more than a dozen people have contacted me to join. It can be seen that the market demand is still very large and very active."
Mr. Cui once partnered with a friend to open a pet funeral agency, which opened in February last year.
During the operation, Mr. Cui found that this industry is still very promising in Weifang. Now the people who keep pets are getting younger and younger, the things they accept are more and more novel, and the consumption power is getting stronger and stronger.
In addition, there are very few people working in this industry in Weifang, and there is basically no competitive pressure. Their own organization has reached a monthly income of over 10,000 yuan in 4 months of operation.
However, it was temporarily closed due to the need to relocate the organization.
The current industry
"Humble and vulnerable"
Mr. Cui found that although this industry has good prospects, it is still difficult to do well.
The first is the issue of venue.
Mr. Cui's shop originally signed a three-year rental contract, but at the end of last year, due to the opposition of the surrounding residents, Mr. Cui had to suspend business.
Then there is the issue of promotion.
This industry cannot directly use publicity means such as advertisements and leaflets. Mr. Cui started with a pet hospital and wanted to cooperate with the pet hospital, but the promotion in the early stage was very difficult, which also led to many stores closing down due to lack of customers in the early stage of operation.
Mr. Cui suggested that if you want to enter this track, it is best to work in the pet-related industry before, which will make it easier to open the market.
Xu Yumao said: "Pet funeral is a very humble and fragile industry." First of all, there are no laws and regulations to regulate this industry, and the second is the problem of location selection.
At first, Xu Yumao wanted to choose a store in the urban area as his venue, but when the owner heard that he wanted to do pet funerals, he refused to rent the house to him. Xu Yumao could only choose a remote village to choose a house with a single house. Pet burial sites, even then, are often subject to various whistleblowers.
Li Xin from Dr. Li's Pet Hospital has investigated the pet funeral project seven or eight years ago.
10 years ago, when Li Xin went to Taiwan to study, he found that there was a well-established system for pet funerals and the benefits were very good.
So I decided to come back and visit the Weifang market, and I was going to be an institution that integrates pet funerals and pet cemeteries.
But when asked if they could accept 500 yuan to cremate their pets, they all shook their heads, which made Li Xin give up the idea of pet funerals.
Industry prospects are optimistic
Expect standardized management
Despite being forced to move, Mr. Cui remains optimistic about the industry.
He said: "I originally planned to choose another address at the beginning of this year, but it was shelved due to the epidemic. Now I will wait for the market economy to recover before continuing to enter the industry." Mr. Cui and his partners plan to wait for two years and have sufficient funds to build an Weifang pet funeral benchmark brand, bringing the best service and best experience to customers.
Mr. Cui said that when an industry grows savagely, there will be relevant laws and regulations to keep up with standardized management.
"A year or so, a dozen people ask how to deal with the death of a pet, and we have no good solution." Pan Xinchuang, the person in charge of the pet hospital, said that the pet funeral industry is still very promising.
According to data from the "2021 White Paper on China's Pet Industry" (Consumption Report), in 2021, there will be 68.44 million urban pets (dogs and cats) in the country, an increase of 8.7% over 2020.
Among them, the annual urban pet (dog and cat) consumption market reached 249 billion yuan, a sharp increase of 20.6% compared with 2020. The consumption penetration rate of pet funerals (meaning that a category has been consumed at least once) is only 2.4%, and there are still large Expansion capacity.
"Qilu Evening News" October 14, 2022 Edition A07