Providore

Providore is listed in our index under retailer-promoted ownership: an exclusive house range sold through Pet Circle. Its availability score is 61 out of 100, and Pet Circle is the only retailer in its stocked list, against five each for Black Hawk, SavourLife and Ivory Coat. Black Hawk sits at 83 on the same availability pillar. You are not choosing between sellers here, you are choosing whether to shop at one.

That has a practical cost. With a national brand you can price the same bag across several retailers, and Pet Circle does not offer price matching, so the Providore number is the only number. The 12kg Grain Free Adult bag carries an editorial estimate of $115.00 AUD, or $109.00 AUD on autoship, which works out to $9.58 and $9.08 per kg. Free shipping starts at $49, so a single bag clears it. Treat all figures here as editorial estimates rather than quoted prices.

Transparency is Providore's weakest pillar at 57 out of 100, below its ingredient score of 66, its nutrition score of 64 and its value score of 69. The formula itself reads reasonably: the Grain Free Adult panel leads on chicken, at 27 per cent protein and 16 per cent fat, and the range is made in Australia. What our scoring cannot find is the sourcing and ownership detail a national brand publishes, which is the gap between a decent panel and a decent score.

For scale, 57 is the same transparency mark The Nosh Project earns, the other Pet Circle exclusive in our index. The independent brands we list as alternatives sit well clear: Ivory Coat on 71, Black Hawk on 74 and SavourLife on 76. That spread is most of the difference between Providore's 64 overall and their 71 to 76. Nothing in the data says the food is worse than the panel suggests. It says less has been published about it, and the score reflects that.

The case for Providore is narrow and real. If you want grain free kibble and you already order from Pet Circle, the 12kg bag is the cheapest grain free option per kg among its listed alternatives: $9.58 against $9.93 for SavourLife Grain Free Lamb, $10.38 for Ivory Coat Grain Free Lamb and $10.60 for Black Hawk Grain Free Chicken. On a roughly 15kg adult dog that is about $2.20 a day, the lowest of those four. The bag rates 74 out of 100 on its own, ten points above the brand.

Skip it if grain free is a preference rather than a requirement, which is a question for your vet: this is not veterinary advice. SavourLife Original Adult Chicken comes in at $8.06 per kg and about $2.00 a day and rates 83 as a product, and the brand behind it carries a 76 transparency score, so the cheaper option is also the better documented one. Skip it too if you like checking a price across several sellers, because Providore gives you exactly one, and its 69 value score already prices that in.