Disney Plans to Unleash Pet Products

Disney is going to the dogs.

The iconic entertainment company, home to such famous canines as Pluto and Goofy, wants a piece of the $75-billion global market for pet products after a successful trial run of Old Yeller-branded dog food at Kroger supermarkets.

“That’s a character that most people wouldn’t even remember,” Andy Mooney, head of Walt Disney Co.’s consumer products division, said Wednesday.

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

Cincinnati-based Kroger, owner of the Ralphs and Food 4 Less chains, 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 bestselling dog food, Mooney said.

“They’re anxious to develop a whole range of accessories,” Mooney said. Burbank-based Disney is already investigating cat-food possibilities with Kroger.

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

Mooney did not say how soon the pet product line would be rolled out or how much investment it would entail.