General Mills Accelerates Growth With Blue Buffalo Expansion Into Fresh and Edgard & Cooper U.S. Launch
MINNEAPOLIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--General Mills today announced two new launches within its North America Pet segment with initiatives from Blue Buffalo and Edgard & Cooper, designed to meet evolving pet parent preferences and accelerate the company's growth in pet feeding.
Blue Buffalo to launch 'Love Made Fresh'
Blue Buffalo — the most loved and trusted natural pet food brand in the U.S. — is entering fresh pet food with the national launch of 'Love Made Fresh,' offering pet parents more ways to love and feed their pets like family. Using its trusted nutritional philosophy and superior ingredients, Blue Buffalo will meet a growing trend of pet parents looking for fresh pet food, as well as a preference for mixing fresh with kibble and other formats.
Blue Buffalo's 'Love Made Fresh' will feature multiple formats and a variety of flavorful recipes, designed to be a standalone fresh solution or a perfect companion to its portfolio of dry dog food. Arriving in stores nationwide later this year, this new fresh portfolio reflects General Mills' commitment to meet the evolving expectations of pet parents and unlock growth in a dynamic $3 billion fresh pet food sub-category. With this launch, Blue Buffalo will represent the largest U.S. pet food brand to offer solutions across dry, wet and fresh feeding.
Edgard & Cooper expands to U.S.
Following its April 2024 acquisition of Edgard & Cooper, a leading European premium pet food brand, General Mills will launch the brand in the U.S. this July through an exclusive retail partnership with PetSmart, a leading omni-channel pet retailer. This U.S. launch will feature Edgard & Cooper's fresh take on pet nutrition, with recipes made with real, recognizable ingredients like fresh chicken, venison and duck, combined with nutritious fruits and vegetables. The range spanning dry food, wet food and treats is designed to support dogs of all breeds and life stages. The national PetSmart launch will leverage Edgard & Cooper's digital-first, social-led marketing approach — a proven driver of its rapid growth in Europe — and further PetSmart's position in the super-premium segment.
'Pet parents are redefining how they feed and treat their pets, and at General Mills, we're listening and continuing to bring trusted, high-quality natural solutions to a rapidly evolving marketplace,' said Liz Mascolo, segment president, North America Pet, General Mills. 'These moves position us to lead in both scale and innovation across the pet food aisle, with offerings that appeal to the fastest growing demographic in the category — young pet parents.'
These investments align with General Mills' Accelerate strategy, combining brand leadership with relentless innovation and consumer-centric insights to drive long-term growth.
Stay tuned to learn more about Blue Buffalo's 'Love Made Fresh' portfolio, coming to stores nationwide later this year. Learn more about Edgard & Cooper's U.S. portfolio at us.edgardcooper.com.
General Mills makes food the world loves. The company is guided by its Accelerate strategy to boldly build its brands, relentlessly innovate, unleash its scale and stand for good. Its portfolio of beloved brands includes household names like Cheerios, Nature Valley, Blue Buffalo, Häagen-Dazs, Old El Paso, Pillsbury, Betty Crocker, Yoplait, Totino's, Annie's, Wanchai Ferry, Yoki and more. General Mills generated fiscal 2024 net sales of U.S. $20 billion. In addition, the company's share of non-consolidated joint venture net sales totaled U.S. $1 billion. For more information, visit www.generalmills.com.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
UPI
an hour ago
- UPI
JetBlue to end service at Miami International Airport in September.
A JetBlue plane takes off from JFK Airport on March 11, 2019, in New York City. The airline is ending service to Miami International Airport. The airline offers service from Miami to JFK via Boston. File photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo June 23 (UPI) -- JetBlue Airways, the fifth-largest airline in the United States, is ceasing service at Miami International Airport in an attempt to end less profitable routes. The last flight for the low-cost carrier in Miami is scheduled for Sept. 3, officials told WFOR-TV. The airline first began operating at MIA in 2021. The airport is the 10th busiest in the United States and serves several nations, including in Central and South America. JetBlue informed MIA of the changes Friday, Greg Chin, communications director for Miami-Dade Aviation Department, told the Miami Herald. Travelers who booked on flights after Sept. 3 "will have the option to fly via Fort Lauderdale or receive a full refund to their original form of payment," Dombrowski told the Miami Herald. JetBlue operates only a single route into Miami International with two daily flights between the city and Boston's Logan International Airport, according to JetBlue spokesperson Derek Dombrowski. Connections are available from Boston, including New York's JFK, where the airlines is based. The airline was operating as many as 14 daily flights to and from Miami International at its peak, according to the Miami Herald. JetBlue CEO Joanna Geraghty, in an internal memo shared with CBS News last week, said the company would "wind down underperforming routes" to reduce costs amid softening demand for travel. "We're hopeful demand and bookings will rebound, but even a recovery won't fully offset the ground we've lost this year, and our path back to profitability will take longer than we'd hoped," she said in the memo. "That means we're still relying on borrowed cash to keep the airline running." Jet Blue has 1,000 daily flights switch 100 destinations, including European nations. Jet Blue will continue to offer service at the two other South Florida airports: Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International and West Palm Beach. Elsewhere in Florida, service is offered in Orlando, Jacksonville, Sarasota/Bradenton, Tampa Bay, Tallahassee and Key West. JetBlue is the second-largest carrier in Fort Lauderdale, behind Spirit, with about 6.8 million serve at that airport in 2024. The airline also plans to cut other routes, including West Palm Beach-Buffalo, N.Y., The Points Guy reported. American Airlines is the largest carrier at the Miami airport as it serves as a hub to Latin America and the Caribbean. Other major U.S. airlines serving the airport are Delta, Spirit, United and Frontier. Southwest doesn't operate there.
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Yahoo
Canada and EU sign defence pact amid strained US relations and global instability
Canada has signed a wide-ranging defence pact with the EU, as Donald Trump and global instability prompt traditional US allies to deepen their alliances. Canadian prime minister, Mark Carney, on Monday joined European Commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, and head of the European Council, António Costa, in Brussels, where they signed a security and defence partnership, pledged more support for Ukraine, as well as joint work on issues from the climate crisis to artificial intelligence. At a cordial press conference, Carney described Canada as 'the most European of the non-European countries' that 'looks first to the European Union to build a better world'. Costa spoke in kind: 'The European Union and Canada are among the closest allies in the transatlantic space. We see the world through the same lens. We stand for the same values.' Related: Canada won't become the 51st US state – but could it join the EU? Not mentioned was another leader in the transatlantic space: Donald Trump, whose disrespect for old allies appears to have galvanised what was an already healthy EU-Canada relationship. The US president is expected at the two-day Nato summit in the Hague starting on Tuesday, when members of the transatlantic alliance are called to pledge to spend 5% of GDP on defence. Carney, a veteran central banker turned politician, won a stunning victory in April pledging that Canada would not become the 51st US state, a proposal often floated by Trump. He said he had a mandate 'to diversify and strengthen our international partnerships' and find new means of cooperation and coordination. The summit took place, Carney told reporters: 'in a hinge moment of history, a world that is more dangerous and divided, a time where the rules-based international global order is under threat'. The EU-Canada security and defence partnership opens the door to increased Canadian participation in the EU's fledgling €150bn defence fund, known as Safe. Von der Leyen said the defence partnership meant working on joint capabilities, interoperability and joint procurement, referencing air defence. 'The access of Canada to our joint procurement in the European Union, the door is open,' she said. The security pact is a Canadian version of the agreement the EU signed with the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, last month. The bloc already had similar arrangements with six other countries including Norway and Japan, but this is the first with any country in the Americas. The defence pact includes joint work on cyber, maritime and space security, arms control and support for Ukraine. Countries that have a defence and security pact with the EU can take part in joint procurement of weapons funded by the €150bn (£128bn, $173bn) Safe programme, although must negotiate a further technical agreement. Von der Leyen pledged both sides would 'swiftly launch talks' on Canadian access to the joint procurement scheme. Carney said the agreement with the EU would help Canada 'deliver on our new capabilities more rapidly and more effectively'. Canada has been one of the laggards of the Nato alliance: in 2024 it spent just 1.37% of GDP on defence, well below the 2% set in 2014. The two sides have a €125bn trading relationship, underpinned by the Ceta pact signed in 2016 that abolished 98% of tariffs. The agreement, however, has yet to be ratified by national parliaments in 10 EU member states, including Belgium, France, Italy and Poland, meaning elements of the deal have yet to enter into force. In advance of the meeting, Carney and his wife, Diana Fox Carney, visited Schoonselhof military cemetery in Antwerp, where 348 Canadians are buried. On social media, Carney wrote: 'brave young soldiers who ventured across the Atlantic to defend the freedom of Europe'. The Carneys were accompanied by Belgium's prime minister, formerly a long-serving Antwerp mayor, Bart De Wever, where they were given a tour of the ceremony and laid wreaths on behalf of Belgium and Canada. The last post was played by one of De Wever's sons, according to local paper Het Nieuwsblad.
Miami Herald
2 hours ago
- Miami Herald
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 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 versus 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." Copyright (C) 2025, Tribune Content Agency, LLC. Portions copyrighted by the respective providers.
