Think the European pet market is one big, unified thing? Think again. Recorded live from Interzoo 2026, the world's largest pet industry event, this episode of Barking Mad explores the cultural, economic, and behavioral differences shaping pet ownership around the globe. Join Jordan Tyler as she sits down with pet industry leaders from Europe and beyond to discuss everything from pet humanization and retail trends to sustainability and emerging markets. The result is a fascinating look at how local realities (not just global assumptions!) are shaping the future of pet care. Episode sponsored by Kallman Worldwide, Inc.

Helpful Links

📰 Explore insights about Europe’s pet care markets from BSM Partners’ expert team:

• Paws auf Deutschland: Insights into the German Pet Market
• How EU and US Perspectives Diverge on ‘Organic’ Claims
• From Generation to Generation: Why Family Businesses Keep Italy Thriving
• For pet professionals tuning in ➡️ International Regulatory Divergence: Exports at Risk

🎧 Learn more about independent pet retail and challenges the channel is facing in the United States: https://bsmpartners.net/barking-mad-podcast/candid-conversations-from-the-superzoo-show-floor-celebrating-neighborhood-pet-store-day

🐕 Read more about Interzoo 2026 and future events here: https://www.interzoo.com/en

🇺🇸 Learn more about Kallman Worldwide, Inc.: https://www.kallman.com/tag/kallman-worldwide/

Show Notes

00:00 – Welcome to Interzoo 2026: The World's Largest Pet Trade Show

02:02 – Stepping Inside the USA Pavilion

04:03 – How Big Is Interzoo, Really?

06:18 – Where the Dog Sleeps: Measuring Pet Humanization

11:17 – Eastern Europe, the Baltics & Rising Pet Industry Powerhouses

13:56 – Lithuania's Pet Retail Landscape and the Return of Personal Relationships

19:08 – Emerging Markets, Sustainability & The Future of Global Pet Food

26:11 – Premium Pet Parenting and the Rise of Lifestyle Brands

28:06 – Building a Pet Food Business During Wartime

30:07 – What Interzoo Taught Us About the Global Pet Industry

30:54 – Key Takeaways & Stay Tuned!

Jordan Tyler

Jordan Tyler

Jordan Tyler

Over the show's four days, we sat down for 34 interviews with founders, manufacturers, ingredient suppliers, brand builders, researchers, and some truly fascinating people across the global pet care space. It's about 12 hours of content, and we're starting with just a snippet. Today's episode’s really more about context and correcting assumptions. Because if you think the European pet market is one big thing, guess again.

Jordan Tyler

There's a lot more to this market than meets the eye, and we have the soundbites to prove it. Welcome to Barking Mad, a podcast by BSM Partners. I'm your host, Jordan Tyler. First and foremost, today we have a huge thank you to our first ever sponsor, Kallman Worldwide, Inc. Our podcast booth at interview was made possible by Kallman, which custom built the booth right into our floor exhibit in the show's USA Pavilion, basically a dedicated section of Interzoo for American brands to exhibit their stuff.

Jordan Tyler

Now let's hear from Tom Kallman, president and CEO of Kalman Worldwide, a former Air Force fighter pilot turned trade show veteran who's now organized somewhere in the neighborhood of 375 U.S. pavilions across 24 different shows in 18 countries. Safe to say this guy knows a thing or two about what it takes to bring people together across borders.

Tom Kallman

Tom Kallman

And at the end of that I, my dad said, “Well, why don't you come and join me?” And I said, “Well, I'm not sure what you do, Dad.” But I came and worked with him for a couple of years, but it only took a few months to fall in love with the trade show industry and what we're doing, you know, and connecting people.

Jordan Tyler

Tom and his incredible team—shouts out to Ondria, Mike, Mark, Allison, Sharon, Erika, Megan, whoever else I didn't mention—they went above and beyond to make sure that Barking Mad had a comfy and chic home for the week. And they did this really for each and every company that exhibited in the Interzoo USA Pavilion.

Tom Kallman

You know, this is our first time here at this show. Last year it was done by another organizer and before that it was done by a woman that took it for several years but had the challenge of taking this project through COVID. And those are really tough times for organizers. We came in and had to introduce ourselves to the industry and explain, you know, how we do things differently and why we do things, and the result is pretty darn spectacular.

Tom Kallman

It's a really pretty looking pavilion out there.

Jordan Tyler

Now I'm a first timer, so give me a couple of years on inner zoom insights. But luckily we know someone who's going to the show for more than 20 years. He's our friend Clayton Payne, no stranger to the Barking Mad podcast and the host of his own UK-facing podcast called Pet Business Disruptors.

Clayton Payne

Jordan Tyler

I had heard that it's Super Zoo and Global Pet Expo combined, plus some.

Clayton Payne

Oh yeah. Oh, easy.

Jordan Tyler

Probably easily.

Clayton Payne

Yes, I would say, I would say probably SUPERZOO and Global combines doubled. That's what I would say.

Jordan Tyler

Jordan Tyler

I love what you said earlier when we were kind of chatting before we turn the mics on. The business is really the fabric of global relationships. It's the fabric of everything that we do, how we better our lives, how we communicate with each other and how we create new things and grow as a society. And those relationships that we build through business, they fuel everything.

Tom Kallman

They do. You know, more than ever. When we're talking about the business being that the fabric of what, you know—we're in a USA pavilion, and for 37 years I've wrapped myself in our pavilions in the, you know, red, white and blue and the US flag and—but behind that, you know, this pavilion is made up of 70 exhibitors and 320 individuals, and all of us are ambassadors and of who we are and what values we stand for.

Tom Kallman

And when you look at the fabric of America, each thread is a business. Each thread is an individual, you know, and that's what comes together and makes it strong. And that's what makes the picture. And whoever is delivering the picture, whether it's regardless of what year it is or what administration is at the bottom line is that's what makes up America and who we are.

Jordan Tyler

Now coming back to my conversation with Clayton, the European pet industry is different from the ones we Americans know in the United States. Some areas more closely resemble the US market, while others feel a bit behind. When Clayton and I sat down, he broke the global and EU pet markets down in a way that hadn't occurred to me before, he said—

Jordan Tyler

You can tell how much a region or a country's pet market has developed in terms of humanization, based on where the dog sleeps.

Jordan Tyler

At night.

Clayton Payne

Yeah, dogs go from sleeping in the kennel to the house to the bedroom. And within Europe there is like literally there's just this whole mix of things. And like even as within the British Isles, so you have Ireland and you have, let's say mainland Great Britain and Ireland is a good ten years behind.

Clayton Payne

The rest, like Great Britain because, you know, it came and all Northern Ireland is actually very similar to the Republic. Interesting. So again, you know, nowhere near as much fresh feeling, like nowhere near as much supplementation, a lot more let's say packed and processed treats, a lot less focus on ingredients. And like I say, look, because you've got the UK, the raw sector in the UK has gone in the last 15 years from half a percent to 10% of dog feeding.

Clayton Payne

Whereas in Ireland it's still, I mean, it's on its way up, but it's in the low low single percent. Yeah. So, and with that you've got the whole the whole sort of, yeah, ideology. But look, as someone who grew up in Ireland, like when people in England had their dog in the house, people in Ireland were letting their dogs run around in the street and then called them in at night, calling them to the kennel at night.

Clayton Payne

So they were more like feral cats when I was a bit [younger] and you know, you'd let your dog out and you'd see it like a week later, you know, it's gone off to the some other farm somewhere, but and then you, then you sort of like extrapolate that and put that across the whole of Europe… Every country in Europe is very different.

Clayton Payne

And then there's the different cultures, there's different linguistics. And so, I always say like, we finally we had this conversation like the German market, for example. Yeah, German market is quite advanced, but it's very quality driven. And I always say with the German market they're incredibly loyal, the Germans. But, you need to they take a lot to break through and their way.

Clayton Payne

Less marketing heavy than we are in the English-speaking world. We like, you know, we like a bit of pizzazz in the UK and us. Some go there, you know, like we love a bit of pizzazz, as well as the Germans, not too much, but that's right. You probably know is they're just going to the stores here. Right. The Germans are a lot more like product quality first.

Clayton Payne

But then again, highly loyal. Whereas I say the Dutch, I like being the access point for Europe for most brands, like from the, from the English-speaking world, because they're the fastest adopters, fastest adopters, but fastest dumpers. So, the Dutch will always try anything. If I always say, if you want to test the European market, you test it out in Holland.

Clayton Payne

But it's kind of like in Asia. It's like the Hong Kong of Asia. Yeah, because like everybody goes there first, everybody gets involved there first. And then it's all builds out. The French, the French are incredibly like drawn towards a quite driven towards price but stylistics. So again, a lot of Chinese products do really well in France.

Clayton Payne

Whereas that's not the case in Germany. Scandinavia: very behind the curve compared to the rest of Western Europe. Yeah. Really behind like so again, fresh feeding is very low. Way more price driven market than, let's say somewhere like the UK. In fact, I would say, and an interesting one at the moment is the Polish market, because the Polish market is on a very quick incline.

Clayton Payne

Poland has developed economically very fast and with it their pet trade, the pet indusgtry is developing very fast as well. So but again, I think for brands it's a lot more exciting. But you know it's like and look everybody looks to the UK in the US as where things are going. But just because it did happen there doesn't mean it's going to happen here.

Jordan Tyler

Yeah. That makes sense. Yeah. Would you say that. And again this is kind of like bending my understanding of the European market—in the best way, because I just, I don't think I understood it very well up until this point—but I guess I had heard so much about Western Europe, Western Europe, you know, we're kind of dividing Western and Eastern and saying that, you know, these are where the differences lie.

Jordan Tyler

This is where you draw the line. And what I'm hearing is that's actually not true at all.

Clayton Payne

No, I would actually go as far as to say realign this between northern and southern Europe.

Jordan Tyler

Okay yeah!

Clayton Payne

But even then it's still not accurate. Because again, look, the Czech market is far more developed than, let's say the Italian market in my opinion. Like Italians primarily…

Jordan Tyler

Just from a humanization standpoint?

Clayton Payne

Yeah. Yeah. And so again with the Czech market, the Hungarian market, this was the Slovak market, the Polish market. They’re all, like, quite well developed comparatively. Slovenia.

Jordan Tyler

Yeah, Lithuania. I talked to a lot of people from Lithuania.

Clayton Payne

Yeah. Lithuania, again like, really big. They've got some really big manufacturers there. Yeah. On that wave, it's just they're on a different level and like, look, there's not saying it's right or wrong. There is this where it is and it's a bit like, even in the Americas, you see it. So I went to Paraguay for a holiday, went into a pet store, and I was just talking there, and she was just talking about how her customers were moving from like the absolute bottom lowest kibble to buying things like Farmina products and that sort of stuff, because people were just starting to bring their dogs in indoors because they were always just seeing

Clayton Payne

dogs as a form of protection.

Jordan Tyler

Yeah.

Clayton Payne

Whereas now they're seeing and was a member of the family.

Jordan Tyler

Yeah. That's all really, really fascinating I think. Yeah, we don't give individual countries and regional cultures enough credit when it comes to how they actually want to treat their pets and feed their pets. And, and probably the industry could do a little bit a better job listening to those distinct needs and preferences in order to segment a little better, because you're talking about, you know, everybody wants to be personalized and customized.

Jordan Tyler

Yet we tried to blanket the European market like it's all the same. It's very counterintuitive.

Clayton Payne

Yeah. And like, look, I mean, again, everyone knows there's different languages. But again, like, yeah nobody assumes a French person's anything like a German. They expect the buying habits to be the same?

Jordan Tyler

Seriously!

Clayton Payne

I mean, like, the food's very different. I mean, you go into a French restaurant, you're going to a German restaurant, you're getting a very different looking dinner…

Jordan Tyler

And in Lithuania, another, very different dinner. It's a beautiful thing, especially if you love travel and food. But that's really what this comes down to. We can't just call it the European pet market because it's actually comprised of many smaller, differentiated markets where pet owners have different relationships with their pets, different priorities and different offerings as a result. It was interesting to learn some of the fastest developing markets across Europe right now are in Eastern Europe and the Baltics.

Jordan Tyler

And speaking of, we sat down with Milda Ivanauskienė and Marius Mince from a company called Kauno Grudai. Kauno Grudai is a 140-year-old Lithuanian family food company. They came to interview to launch a brand-new line of fully human grade pet stews, made in the same facilities as their soups, for people from their own antibiotic free chicken farms.

Jordan Tyler

Now, Clayton mentioned, the Baltic markets are moving fast. So let's get Milda’s perspective on what sets Lithuania apart, particularly the way that pet food is actually bought.

Jordan Tyler

And sold there.

Milda Ivanauskienė

If you think about Lithuania and Latvia and Estonia, we still have small pet shops which owned by personal owners. Not like if you take Central Europe, they have like retail, big chains which they build up all the same. In all these small countries like Baltic countries, we are not talking about Scandinavia but about all our small Baltic countries.

Milda Ivanauskienė

It's more individualized and more creative. Each owner, they have their own view of seeing and to attract people. Because we know in even if you take Lithuania and Latvia and Estonia, even if they're very close, they're different in culture, tasting different cakes and bread and everything. But the pets, I think they love the same food, which is good one.

Milda Ivanauskienė

And they also, you know, because we're seeing on TikTok everything trendy and it's also coming, but still we have more personalized pet shops, which the owner, sometimes the owner of the businesses he works on behind the shop and introducing everything. So that makes something unique and more, you know. But because the owner, he wants to, let's say, earn money and he wants to attract customers.

Milda Ivanauskienė

So, you know, so I think we still have this one which is more like it's made for every single pet shop owner of their pets. Then it's, you know, gives us like you feel at home, like it's made for you.

Jordan Tyler

Now that's really interesting. So you're saying it's maybe less mass marketed and a little bit more curated?

Milda Ivanauskienė

Yeah. Yeah, it is. It is more like established for… we have a lot of… So, countries get very small and, and people can just turn on the corner and find some head shop or vet clinic, which is very close to them.

Jordan Tyler

Looking at some of the more curated, these independent shops, these mom and pop shops, if you will. What are some of the trends that you're seeing there?

Marius Mince

Yeah, so basically, because the owners or the people that are working behind the counter, they don't see like a thousand people everyday, like, you know, in a regular shop, they have this kind of a bond with the, with that client. Then they are professionals of knowing what the certain people want. So, this individual take is kind of working out because in the other countries, with business models currently declining very fast and other countries, it's hard to tell what it will be in the future.

Marius Mince

But I think this personal interest in the client is giving them quite a big attach.

Jordan Tyler

Yeah, yeah, we see that. Well, it used to be a lot more pervasive in the US, the independent pet retail channel, and we've kind of seen it being taken over by the big box stores and the chains and e-commerce, you know, Amazon and Chewy. And it's kind of sad because it kind of feels like you're losing some of that relational knowledge and that trust that you had with that, the representative that you used to buy pet food from your local store, you know, it's become less relational.

Jordan Tyler

It's become more transactional. I know that those are way overused buzzwords these days. But I mean, fundamentally it is, I think, a detriment.

Milda Ivanauskienė

For me, for myself, it’s about coming to pet shops, small stores. And, and, and I feel like it home and I know and all it's really, you know, it's like friends, and he's giving you good advice because we're still human beings and we need to communicate, we need some advice. And we still we still like to do that. So, I think I will never go and buy on of course, on e-commerce, but it's coming as well.

Milda Ivanauskienė

We cannot avoid. But as I look to this new generation like my daughter’s pet, said he loves to go to the stores physical one and touch. They were really coming and getting into that. Yeah, we built the brick-and-mortar on the way of buying them coming back. So maybe it's, you know, generation that is the same situation like with the fashion.

Milda Ivanauskienė

Like yeah, okay.

Milda Ivanauskienė

It's coming back.

Jordan Tyler

Coming back in style.

Milda Ivanauskienė

Yeah. So it's the same. Maybe it's coming back, you know.

Jordan Tyler

While Clayton mapped out the differences between Germany and the Netherlands and Poland, and while Milda told us about what pet retail looks like in Lithuania. We also gathered a few insights from those whose eyes are on markets that most industry players are not even looking at yet. Henriette Bylling is the owner and CEO of All Our Pet Food, a Danish Khamenei that makes pet food for other brands.

Jordan Tyler

Henriette has also been coming to interview for the last 20 years, but the question she's asking isn't how to compete in Germany or France or Poland. It's what's happening in Nigeria, Iran, Kenya, emerging markets and other words, what happens when the dog that's been sleeping outside starts to come in at night? According to Henriette, the opportunity in these markets is closer than we might think. Oftentimes the raw ingredients are already there.

Henriette Bylling

What I see is like, well, we're looking into finding protein sources and so on in the old perfect markets. So Western Europe, the US, Canada and so on. Whereas if you go to some of the new markets, there's a protein being put in landfill. So, they have perfectly good raw materials that are wasted. Then they can look into sustainability.

Henriette Bylling

On a global basis. So, there's raw materials there. No, they're not at the level you need to produce a good pet food. But I have managed to raise suppliers in my past activities and so on to get up to good quality level and have my quality team work with suppliers is often distributors in the young markets. It could be in India, it could

Henriette Bylling

be in Africa and so on… So, I believe that the future is sourcing one material locally.

Henriette Bylling

Producing locally, and.

Henriette Bylling

In the sense that local is not just within the 100 kilometer range. It's like, you know, it's more probably more regional.

Henriette Bylling

Regional. Yes, yes.

Henriette Bylling

So you can also take advantage of, you know, customs agreements between different countries.

Henriette Bylling

Also put the business power in local people like, well, we cannot come from Western Europe or from the US and say: “Well, we know exactly how you should run your business.” In my mind like we don't.. We know how to make pet food. We don't know how to sell pet food in Nigeria.

Henriette Bylling

And it's local people who are much better at that. So that's the route I'm looking down. And at the same time, if we're just a narrower mind down to pet food again, it's like the whole sustainability. We're sitting there looking at insect protein and algae and so on, and we say, “Oh, this is very, extremely sustainable.”

Henriette Bylling

But it is still sustainable if we then produce the product in the US and send it to the other side of the world. It's like, well… so I say, sometimes we have a narrow minded sustainability approach. We don't have the global sustainability approach. We just have was like, “Oh yeah, within these four walls, we're doing great. It's perfectly sustainable.”

Henriette Bylling

But don't look outside. No, no, it's actually like it's not our responsibility. This one's it's on the truck now. It's on the wrong. It's wrong. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I think what really fascinates me is that going into some of the markets, especially in the Muslim countries, where in theory it's haram to have a dog.

Henriette Bylling

Yeah. But I'm in the process of starting up in Iran of all places, just.

Henriette Bylling

But I like a challenge. And what I was there a year ago and been there a few times over the last couple of years. And what's really interesting is, yes, it's haram. Yes, it's illegal to have a dog, but you see people with pets everywhere. You see the pets shops. It's not like behind closed doors.

Henriette Bylling

Yeah. You know, so it's there. And people are getting more and more into their pets. There is some local production, but because it's illegal to import pet food. It's a different world. So, of course, I can see in that journey and doing something internally in Iran. Yeah. And the reason that you cannot impose is, of course, to support local production based and local production, but there's not a very good quality of raw materials.

Henriette Bylling

And so that's for improvement. I think it's also it's difficult to get into market, of course, when it's a very young market and it's very early days, but that's where the opportunity lies. But for the future. And you can see, been in the dialog for several years with a gentleman in Nigeria. And they told me, I said, “Oh, is this the time?”

Henriette Bylling

“Is this the time?” And there you can say it's like, “No, the dog is not sleeping in the bed. It's also not sleeping in on the, in the streetsSomewhere in the middle. Because the big market is because of the instability of the country. It's the same in Kenya as well. I know from the connection.

Henriette Bylling

So it's guard dogs. And that's and I like because they're big and they eat a lot.

Jordan Tyler

That's very. Yeah, exactly.

Jordan Tyler

Guard dogs still got to eat.

Henriette Bylling

Exactly, exactly. And of course, they need good health.

Jordan Tyler

Yeah. Or else they'll be sleeping on the job and we can't have that.

Henriette Bylling

Oh, no.

Jordan Tyler

So in many ways, you can't really compare markets across Europe to those in the US and Canada to those in Africa, South America. They're just different. And the people who live there with their pets are the ones ultimately driving the market, moving from markets where the dog may be sleeping outside and into those where the dog's firmly in the bedroom, tucked into the bed, probably stealing all the covers.

Jordan Tyler

Our next guest is David Eslass, the CEO of Essential Foods, a Danish brand taking a more premium approach for European pet parents ready to treat their dogs like their favorite children.

David Eslass

Basically, we are a lifestyle luxury brand, but we focus a lot on attracting through the way we look, the way our design is and the way our booth is. You should stop by. Definitely.

Jordan Tyler

Oh, yeah.

David Eslass

And the design of our products. And that's kind of the opener. Behind all that, we also had the good stuff. We think it's very novel to bring something out where you have a certain promise to the customer. I mean, our mission is definitely to prolong and improve the lives of cats and dogs, and that puts us right up there with the, you know, that's a big promise.

David Eslass

And of course, a luxury brands like ours have to live up to that promise, right? We do that all the way through the design and all the way to the product.

Jordan Tyler

Yeah, yeah. You're also, you know, you're not designing for the mass market here. You're designing for a very specific consumer. So, talk to me a little bit about who that consumer is. Who is that pet owner?

David Eslass

That's a good question. Well, it could be everybody but definitely people who appreciates quality in their life. And so, people who like to pay a little extra to get a lot more. That's basically why we are here. And so, we see ourselves up there with brands like Land Rover, Range Rover, Mulberry. So that's kind of the lifestyle that we are promoting.

David Eslass

And Burberry even or you know, Barber, you know, brands where you are out there in the outdoor with your dog experiencing the world away from the city. And I think we all have that dream of having enough time to do that. And we're kind of promoting that lifestyle.

Jordan Tyler

Before we wrap up today, I have one more snippet to share from interview. Amid all the product launches and market insights, booth visits and free chopstick, it's kind of rough out there. There is a lot of global tension, even war. One conversation with Ulyana Fitsa of Kormotech brought this sharply into focus. Based in Ukraine, this company and the people behind it have taken a story of war and turned it into a story of resilience.

Ulyana Fitsa

Even now we have the war, very active. For example, this night they were bombing the capital and, you know, you are reading use about these things, but at the same time, you have to be at the exhibition and thinking about the future. And nevertheless, no matter what is happening in the human life, the pets, they don't have to suffer from all these things.

Ulyana Fitsa

And that was the reason why we decided not to stop our professional life operational life. When the war started, we only stopped for one week because we needed to understand what to do, how we have to cope with this situation. And then we understood that it will last months, a lot, and that we need to understand that we can't influence on these aspects, but we can do our common job as perfectly as we can.

Ulyana Fitsa

And personally me, I'm taking each day. I understand that I need to be 100% efficient today in order to help my future.

Jordan Tyler

Jordan Tyler

Every single person I talked to at Interzoo—from sustainable cat litter founders to longstanding success stories to emotional counts of real life-and-death challenges—everyone was 100% passionate about what they were doing to better the lives of people, pets and the communities in which we all thrive. This passion is not uniquely American. It's not uniquely European.

Jordan Tyler

It's everywhere and every language, every market, every interview. And the global pet industry, for all its complexity and scale and innovation, exists as it does today because of that passion. Hopefully, this episode made you feel a little more connected to the millions of other pet lovers around the world. And don't worry—those were just a few snippets of the 12 plus hours of content we gathered at Interzoo

Jordan Tyler

Part 2 is coming soon, so keep your eyes peeled over the next few weeks as we bring you more insights from pet obsessed people from around the world. Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Barking Mad. If you want to learn more about BSM partners, please visit us at

Jordan Tyler

www.BSMPartners.net. Don't forget to subscribe on your favorite leading podcast platform, or share this with a friend to stay current on the latest trends and developments in pet care. A huge thank you to Tom Kallman and Kallman Worldwide for sponsoring this episode and other episodes that will be sharing from Interzoo, as well as other guests: Clayton Payne, Maurice and Milda, Henriette Bylling, David Eslass and Ulyana Fitsa for sharing their time and stories with us.

Jordan Tyler

We'd also like to thank our dedicated team: Jacob Parker, Cady Wolf, Neeley Bowden, Ada-Miette Thomas and Anna Guilfoyle. A special shout out to David Perez for our original music in the intro and outro. See you next time!