General Mills launching Blue Buffalo fresh pet food nationwide

General Mills learned some valuable lessons about fresh dog food after Blue Buffalo tested the concept a few years ago at a handful of retailers.

First, the good boys and girls love it.

“They literally will stand in front of a refrigerator and ask for the food again,” CEO Jeff Harmening said.

Second, it would take some effort to make it work on a large scale.

“We did not have the right commercial business model to support it, because there’s different operating dynamics in the fresh segment than there are in dry kibble,” said Liz Mascolo, president of the North America pet division at Golden Valley-based General Mills.

That behind-the-scenes work has led to Blue Buffalo’s “Love Made Fresh” portfolio, which will debut nationwide later this year in several formats and formulas, the company announced Monday.

By fully entering the $3 billion fresh-pet-food market, Blue Buffalo latches onto the fastest-growing part of the industry. Mascolo said she expects the category to reach $10 billion within a decade.

“It’s an opportunity for us to drive the growth of the fresh segment, but it’s a bigger opportunity for us to drive Blue Buffalo overall,” she said, as most fresh customers also buy kibble. “You’ll see us show up differently, talking about ways that people can incorporate fresh into their feeding vs. an all-or-nothing approach.”

Blue Buffalo already trades on the “humanization” of pet food, which has seen pet parents trending toward more wholesome, and more expensive, options for their pets. Fresh pet food is an extension of that tendency.

“Today’s pet owners are treating their pets as well as, or better than, themselves,” wrote CoBank’s Billy Roberts in a report on fresh pet food last year. “Consumers generally equate fresh options, particularly refrigerated products, with foods that are natural and, by further extension, healthier.”

The fresh category leader, Freshpet, is on track to pass $1 billion in revenue this year after nearly doubling sales since 2022.

“Freshpet’s success should eventually draw more competition,” Morningstar analyst Kristoffer Inton wrote last month, pointing to the 2023 Blue Buffalo trial.

Mascolo said Blue Buffalo, which General Mills acquired in 2018, was built for this moment.

“We feel really excited about our ability to compete and to win in this fresh segment because our brand purpose actually is to help more parents love and feed their pets like family,” she said. “If you’ve ever seen somebody feed fresh food to their dogs, it’s a different sort of pet reaction, and it’s a different way for you to show your love at mealtime.”

Love Made Fresh isn’t the only major move General Mills’ pet business is making this year. Belgian pet food brand Edgard & Cooper, a fast-rising hit across Europe that General Mills bought for an undisclosed sum last year, is coming stateside.

PetSmart locations nationwide will exclusively sell the brand starting in July, General Mills said in its Monday announcements.

“It’s got a very vibrant personality. It’s a very fun brand,” Mascolo said. “It’s also a really premium, high-quality product, and nutritionally, it’s different. We only use fresh meat, so there’s no meal or ground meat, then add a ton of fruits and vegetables and no grains.”