Disney barking up a new tree with pet products

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"That's a character that most people wouldn't even remember," Andy Mooney, head of Walt Disney Co.'s consumer products division, said during a discussion with a handful of journalists on Wednesday.

"And we have a lot of pets in the Disney portfolio."

Cincinnati-based Kroger in April 2005 replaced a private-label dog food in its 2,500 U.S. stores with one branded by the 1957 Disney film pooch. Since then, it has become the store's best selling dog food, Mooney said.

"They're anxious to develop a whole range of accessories," said Mooney, a Scotsman who formerly worked for Nike. Disney is already investigating a cat food range with Kroger.

He stressed, however, that Disney's expansion in the pets business is unlikely to be centred around food, but instead on such items as collars, clothing and bedding, which have been popularised recently by celebrity dog owners like Paris Hilton.

Mooney did not say how soon the pet product line would be rolled out or how much investment it would entail. He noted that consumers in the United States and Japan have become particularly fond of pampering their pets, but the plan was for Disney's products to sell globally.

Another already hot-selling U.S. pet-related item for Disney is an aquarium based on its "Pirates of the Caribbean" film, a company spokeswoman said.

Since joining Disney in 1999, Mooney has shifted the company's focus away from owning stores to a more active licensing process working more closely with other retailers, including Wal-Mart, Tesco and Target, as well as high-end fashion labels such as Dolce & Gabbana.

Disney-branded consumer products last year generated 11 billion pounds of global retail sales, compared with 6.5 billion pounds in 1999. Profit margins on licensing hover around the 70 percent level, he said, meaning incremental growth yields large amounts of cash.

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