Australians spend more on their pets than ever, and premium product is reshaping the shelf. Yet specialist pet packaging design is thin on the ground. Here is the data.
Australia has one of the highest rates of pet ownership in the world. Dogs live in roughly 48% of households (about 7.4 million dogs) and cats in around a third. Total annual pet spending is estimated at over A$21 billion, reported as up about 35% since 2022 (attribute cautiously; this is an industry estimate, not an official statistic).
Pet food is the largest slice. Estimates for the retail market vary by source and method, from roughly A$4.8 to A$6.3 billion, and the category is premiumising: premium and super-premium products now make up over half of value, and humanisation is pushing fresh, raw, functional and treat formats. That trend is fundamentally a design and branding story, pet owners buy on trust and emotion, then justify on nutrition.
Share of the 68 studios in the PackagingDesigner.com.au directory that publicly list each specialism. Studios commonly span several categories. Source: PackagingDesigner.com.au directory, October 2026.
For a pet economy north of twenty billion dollars a year, specialist supply is remarkably thin: just three of the 68 studios in the directory, about 4%, name pet as a specialism. Most pet packaging is handled by generalist FMCG studios, which can work, pet shares grocery’s discipline, but the brands winning on shelf increasingly treat pet as its own craft.
The opportunity for founders is a premiumising category with few dedicated specialists; the opportunity for studios is obvious white space. Morice & Co, the publisher of this directory, is one of the three, with pet wellness rebrand work including Natural Animal Solutions.
Pet food in Australia is largely self-regulated. The key reference is the voluntary Australian Standard AS 5812 for the manufacture and marketing of pet food, maintained by the Pet Food Industry Association of Australia (PFIAA) with the Australian Veterinary Association. Around 97 to 98 percent of prepared pet food by volume comes from PFIAA members, so it sets the labelling norm, and Australian Consumer Law still requires every claim to be truthful. See our regulations reference and the pet packaging guide.
Indicatively, a single pet SKU at a boutique studio runs about A$1,500 to A$3,000, a new brand and pack about A$3,000 to A$6,000, and a full range from A$8,000. See the pricing benchmark for the full matrix by studio size.
Supply-side figures are drawn from the PackagingDesigner.com.au directory of 68 Australian packaging and branding studios (October 2026), counting studios that publicly list each specialism; studios commonly span several categories. Market figures are attributed to published market-research and industry sources and are presented as indicative ranges, because definitions, currencies and retail-versus-wholesale measures differ between sources. Total-spending and ownership figures are industry estimates, not official statistics. This is a curated directory sample, not a census.
Sources
This report is free to cite. Please attribute it and link back:
State of Pet Packaging Design in Australia 2026, PackagingDesigner.com.au (Morice & Co). https://packagingdesigner.com.au/insights/state-of-pet-packaging-australia.html
Estimates put total annual pet spending at over A$21 billion, with the pet food retail market around A$4.8 to A$6.3 billion depending on the source and method. These are industry estimates rather than official statistics.
In the PackagingDesigner.com.au directory of 68 studios, three list pet as a specialism, about 4%, making it one of the most under-served categories relative to demand.
It is largely self-regulated. The voluntary Australian Standard AS 5812, maintained by the PFIAA, sets best-practice manufacturing and labelling, and most of the market follows it. Australian Consumer Law still requires claims to be truthful.
Roughly A$1,500 to A$3,000 for a single SKU at a boutique studio, up to A$8,000 or more for a full range. See our pricing benchmark.
This report is compiled and published by Morice & Co, a Melbourne packaging and branding studio led by a designer with over 20 years designing retail packaging across FMCG, supplements, beauty and pet. The supply-side data is drawn from the PackagingDesigner.com.au directory; market figures are attributed to their sources.
Editorial standards →About Morice & Co →Browse specialist studios, or get an expert read of your current pack from the studio behind this report.
Browse the directoryRequest a Review