The Rise of Nontraditional Outlets
Consumers with increasingly upscale tastes are more likely to look beyond traditional pet retail stores to find high-ticket luxury, gift and human-brand products—which will push sales of pet products in nontraditional outlets to nearly $4.2 billion by 2010, according to Packaged Facts, a publishing division of MarketResearch.com (New York)...

Training Products Soar
With consumer interest in pet obedience training at an all-time high, sales of training products have increased more than 25 percent in the last four years, and are expected to jump 40 percent by 2010, according to Packaged Facts, a division of MarketResearch.com (New York)...

Coastal Wins Multiple Awards at PIDA Conference
Coastal Pet Products Inc. (Alliance, Ohio) was named Supplier of the Year for the second time in three years during the Pet Industry Distributors Association’s 38th annual meeting and management conference, held Feb. 8-11 in Indian Wells, Calif...

Marine Ornamentals 2006 Promotes Future of Aquaculture
Held Feb. 13-16 in Las Vegas in conjunction with Aquaculture America 2006 and in cooperation with the World Aquaculture Society (Baton Rouge, La.), Marine Ornamentals 2006 promoted the goal of fostering a worldwide marine ornamentals industry that is economically and environmentally viable...

Customer Centricity
More retailers are using customer data to improve their marketing programs and merchandise offerings, according to the latest Customer Centricity Study by the NRF Foundation, the research and education arm of the National Retail Federation (Washington)...

Top Dog Writers Honored
Celebrating Greyhounds Magazine (St. Paul, Minn.) won the Pro Plan President’s Award for best publication of the year and was named best single-breed magazine in the annual writing competition held by the Dog Writers Association of America (Coatesville, Pa.)...

SuperZoo Upgrades
As part of an internal reorganization effort, the World Wide Pet Industry Association (Arcadia, Calif.) established a new department specifically to increase attendance at SuperZoo, Sept. 20-22 at the Mandalay Bay Convention Center in Las Vegas..