How PE Firms Are Buying Up Pet Food Companies

Episode notes

Episode 92 of Private Equity Conversations digs into a fast-consolidating niche you probably haven't noticed: pet food. Lucas and Luna walk through the numbers behind General Mills' $1.2 billion acquisition of Blue Buffalo back in 2018, and why that deal sent every PE firm scrambling for premium pet-food brands. They trace how firms like JAB Holding Company - the same conglomerate behind Peet's Coffee and Panera - built a pet-food platform called Compassion-First, and why Nestlé Purina is now racing to buy indie brands before PE rolls them up. The conversation homes in on one metric: market share. Independent pet-food brands still hold about 35 percent of the U.S. market, but PE-backed roll-ups are capturing that share at roughly 3 percent per year. If the trend holds, by 2035 the independents will be under 10 percent. Lucas and Luna ask whether this is a smart consumer bet or just another asset-strip disguised as brand love.

Related episodes across the Index

Other episodes covering the same guests and topics, from across The B2B Podcast Index.

• How Private Equity Is Buying Up Pet Food CompaniesThe Buyout Show with Fexingo · on private equity pet food

• How Private Equity Transformed Your Local Grocery Checkout75 / 100
• The Quiet Consolidation Of Commercial Roofing
• How Private Equity Bought Your Power Grid
• The Silent Takeover of Nursing Homes
• How Private Equity Bought Your Local Funeral Homes