General Mills pounces for growth in cat food

“We’ll continue to look for options to strengthen our growth profile through M&A,” General Mills chairman and CEO Jeff Harmening told analysts in September in the wake of the US giant’s sale of its North America yogurt assets. And, two months on, the fruits of that labour have materialised with the Blue Buffalo maker’s latest acquisition in pet food, a deal industry watchers believe can support General Mills’ existing presence in the category. 

On Thursday (14 November), the Cheerios and Fiber One brands owner struck its fifth deal in pet food with the acquisition of a set of assets from US-based Whitebridge Pet Brands. 

General Mills paid $1.45bn for Whitebridge’s North American cat-food and pet-treats business from Belgium-based private investment company NXMH (the deal doesn’t include Whitebridge’s European portfolio, which stays with NXMH). 

Blue Buffalo marked General Mills’ re-entry into pet food after decades away (the company acquired Spratt’s in the 1950s). The company stumped up $8bn for Blue Buffalo and to move back in the sector, a decision largely seen at the time as wise given the challenges the group was then facing in growing sales. 

After the Blue Buffalo deal, General Mills paid Tyson Foods $1.2bn for a clutch of pet-food brands in 2021, bought US pet-supplements firm Fera Pets in 2023 and, further afield, this year acquired European pet-food business Edgard & Cooper.

Nevertheless, General Mills’ pet-food business, at least in North America, has been dogged by challenges in recent quarters. In the year to 26 May, the net sales from the company’s pet division (which principally covers the US and Canada) fell 4% amid a 7% decline in volumes. 

The unit’s operating profit rose 9%, helped by lower input costs. However, when General Mills presented its annual results to analysts in June, the company said “priority one” for its new financial year was to “return North America Pet to growth”.

Pet food remains a principal part of General Mills’ overall corporate strategy. At a presentation at the annual CAGNY investment conference in Florida in February, pet food was listed (alongside cereal, snack bars, Mexican food and ice cream) as one of the company’s “five global platforms”. The product areas are central to the group’s ‘Accelerate’ strategy, launched in 2021, to give a boost to its long-term organic sales growth. 

Moreover, one of four “long-term mega trends” called out by General Mills at this year’s CAGNY event was the “humanisation” of pet food, when pet owners are happy to spend more on pet food and a phenomenon that’s been central to the overall category’s robust growth in recent years. Critically, many industry watchers, not just General Mills, believe there are legs in the trend. 

Part of General Mills’ message to investors in June at its annual results was it would look to invest in ways that spoke to the importance to the business of that ‘humanisation’ trend. CEO Jeff Harmening said the company would “accelerate” its innovation behind humanisation with products like “seasonal gifting packs, so pets can join in on the family’s seasonal celebrations”. 

He added that the company would shout louder about the “ingredient superiority” of its pet food and making changes to its overall range with an eye on offering value to pet owners (“optimising the price point of our, core, canned wet-food line” and launching smaller-sized “treat” packs”). 

“Blue Buffalo has driven tremendous growth for General Mills since 2018, though the business experienced headwinds over the past 12 months. Returning our Pet segment to growth is a key priority in fiscal ’25,” he said.

And those organic efforts will be supported by a new addition to the brood. 

The Whitebridge transaction includes two manufacturing facilities in Missouri (where General Mills’ pet business already has a plant) and brands such as Tiki Pets and Cloud Star. According to General Mills, over the past year, the assets changing hands generated approximately $325m in retail sales (those measured by Nielsen), primarily through “pet specialty and e-commerce channels”. 

Jon Nudi, the president of General Mills’ pet business in North America, said: “Acquiring the Tiki Pets and Cloud Star portfolio strengthens our commitment in the pet space. These brands complement our Blue Buffalo portfolio and will help us incrementally grow in cat feeding and treats.”

Robert Moskow, a managing director at US investment bank TD Cowen who covers General Mills, says the make-up of the product portfolio taken on through the acquisition is important. “They have done well in dog food over time but struggled to gain a foothold in cat and pet treats,” Moskow wrote in a note to clients. “The Blue brand does not have as much cache in cat food as it does in dog and the company’s attempts to expand deeper into pet treats through acquisitions have not met expectations. Recall that they paid $1.2bn for Tyson’s portfolio of pet treats in 2021 and rebranded the Nudges, Top Chews and True Chews brands under the Blue umbrella.” 

And it’s wet food for cats that Moskow sees as central to the deal. “The main objective of the acquisition is to gain a foothold in the high-growth premium wet cat feeding segment of the market where General Mills currently does not participate. Tiki premium cat food accounts for two-thirds of the business,” he explained. 

Matthew Smith, a senior equity analyst at Stifel, believes the deal will bolster General Mills’ growth profile, given the recent rate of sales seen at Whitebridge, which, he adds, have been supported by the dynamics seen in the US market for cat food. 

“Roughly 70% of Whitebridge sales are cat related, with growth trends benefiting from category growth for cat feeding which has outpaced the rate of dog feeding growth since late 2023,” Smith said. “In addition, favourable demographic trends including cat ownership growth outpacing the rate of dog ownership, cats being cheaper to feed and requiring less living space support a category growth rate for cat feeding that should continue to outpace the dog category.” 

While working on boosting the performance of its existing pet-food assets after a problematic 12 months, General Mills will be looking to smoothly integrate into the business a set of assets that appear to open up a new flank for the group. The company expects to close the deal in the third quarter of its current financial year, which runs to late February. 

In his note to clients, Moskow did raise another point that caught the eye that will be front and centre for General Mills as it brings the new pet assets under its wing. “[General Mills’] management says that the business has been growing at a 20% rate over the past two years, primarily due to Tiki cat food. However, our data indicates slower growth in recent months due to distribution losses in pet treats.”