Nordic pet care company Musti Group has reported improved net sales for the first six months of this year, driven in part by the acquisition of Pet City, a pet store and clinic chain.
Between January and June 2025, Musti Group posted net sales of €241.5 million (US$280 million), up 14.3% compared with the same period a year earlier, the company said in a statement.
"Net sales increased in all markets, especially during the second quarter," the company said. "Also, the acquisition of Pet City in the Baltics increased the net sales by EUR 17.3 million (US$20.1 million). Like-for-like sales growth was 4%."
David Rönnberg, CEO of Musti Group, noted Q2 was a very positive period for Musti.
"Strong sales growth underpinned market share gains, extending our leadership in a rebounding market," said Rönnberg. "Following a long period of low to flat underlying market growth we are seeing evidence of a market turnaround, and we're focused on capitalizing on this in all segments. Growing faster than the market with improving gross margin signals that our strategic actions are working."
Musti said that the second quarter of 2025 indicated the company's "tactical and strategic initiatives can and are delivering above market growth, extending our leadership in our traditional Nordic and new Baltic markets."
The company is listed on Nasdaq Helsinki. Musti Group is an offshoot of Sonae Group, a multinational conglomerate based in Portugal.
Czech startup pushes for EU cultivated meat regulation
As Czech startup Bene Meat Technologies intensifies its efforts to strengthen international recognition of cultivated meat, the company is calling on the European Commission, the European Union's executive branch, to address the regulatory status of cultivated meat products in the Biotech Act, a key piece of legislation Brussels is developing.
Bene Meat Technologies released its position in response to the Commission's call for evidence on the act. In the document, the company also requests Brussels to "create clear and dedicated regulatory pathways for cultivated meat." Additionally, Bene Meat Technologies states the EU should ensure exemptions for "New Genomic Techniques (NGTs) that have been scientifically proven to be safe from the scope of the European Union's GMO regulatory requirements."
"Promotion of cultivated meat to the public should be approached in an appropriate manner," noted the company. "The role of the EU should focus solely on ensuring the safety of these products, rather than promoting their additional benefits. Highlighting other features, such as financial support, health benefits, sustainability, and ethical aspects, may inadvertently generate negative feedback, as it could lead to greater opposition than support."
Meanwhile, Bene Meat Technologies is advancing plans to launch a new production facility where it will manufacture cultivated meat for trials, samples, and product development activities with business partners. In May 2024, the company released the first samples of its cultured meat for pet food.
Also last year, the startup published the first comprehensive life cycle assessment (LCA) study focused on the industrial cultivation of meat. Developed in partnership with researchers from the Technical University in Prague and peer-reviewed by an LCA expert from the UK's University of Nottingham, the study "provides the most accurate insight to date into the environmental impacts of cultivated meat production at an industrial scale," said the company.
"This study focuses on evaluating the cultivation technology we are implementing at our new 200-ton-per-year facility, which is currently under construction," Kateřina Dvořák Vašová, PR coordinator and researcher at Bene Meat Technologies, told Petfood Industry. "This is one of the first, if not the first, such study on an actual industrial scale cultivation facility, and the numbers clearly show that cultivation is a clean way to grow meat."
Based in Prague, Bene Meat Technologies has been working on its product since 2020.
