United Baarde Inc. (UBI), the Filipino-owned company behind Pure Choice Pet Care, has officially launched its newest cat care brand, Dear Kat, in a press event attended by executives Julius Ladica, Douglas Baarde Jr., and Wilson Samoranos.
The team shared candid insights into the brand’s development, nutritional philosophy, and mission to make high-quality cat food accessible to Filipino households.
While Dear Kat isn’t UBI’s first foray into pet care, it’s the one they’re betting on to become a household name. “Actually, we launched our first brand in June 2023, and since then, we’ve introduced a number of products,” said Douglas Baarde Jr. “But we feel that Dear Kat is special… it has the capacity to become that brand we’ve been waiting for. If we compare Dear Kat with all the other brands that we have, this is what we can consider a mainstream brand—a brand that can have mass appeal… not just because we made it affordable, although that plays a very big role in it.”
That affordability is no accident—it’s a direct response to one of the most persistent misconceptions about pet food in the Philippines. When asked what myth they wish more Filipino pet owners understood, Julius Ladica answered plainly: “Mahal (daw). That’s one.”
Baarde expanded: “’Yun nga, mahal. Kasi minsan hindi siya misconception, minsan totoo siya. Pero minsan misconception siya because there are actually affordable brands, and now, ‘yung cat, meron na rin.”
Dear Kat was designed to challenge that belief—offering complete and balanced nutrition without the premium price tag.
Nutrition remains central to the brand’s promise. Baarde emphasized the importance of feeding cats food that meets regulatory standards. “If a commercially prepared pet food is registered with the Bureau of Animal Industry, that means ‘yung produkto mo has complete and balanced nutrition. That one is hard to achieve with table scraps,” he explained. “With commercially prepared food, even if you don’t understand nutritional science, you can be sure you’re giving them what they need.”
This message directly addresses a common practice in Filipino households—feeding cats leftover food. While some believe this leads to fewer health issues, Wilson Samoranos clarified the misconception: “Totoo rin naman, but if your product is well-balanced nga, like our product, less sodium siya—low sodium. ‘Yung salt kasi, ‘yun ‘yung pampalasa ng mga cat food or dog food. For us, we get our pampalasa or palatability from fats. So, ang requirement namin talaga is that your pet won’t develop kidney failure.”
Finding the right manufacturing partner was a meticulous process. “We’ve already had a few manufacturing partners for our other brands—they’re in China,” Baarde shared. “But we’ve always been looking for a manufacturer that would enable us to do this. So it’s really a matter of engaging them and showing them the formulations that we want… If it does not pass, then we look for another one; if it passes, we talk about price.”
The executives also stressed the importance of trade partners in building Dear Kat’s success. “Kami naman, we just distribute,” Baarde noted. “Meron din naman kaming e-commerce, pero ‘yung malaki talaga are the ones who sell. So it’s important talaga na we take care of them, because if we take care of them, kasama namin sila sa pagpo-promote niyan.”
With Dear Kat, United Baarde Inc. isn’t just launching a product—it’s rewriting the narrative of cat care in the Philippines, proving that affordability and quality can—and should—go hand in hand.
