Nestle announces acquisition of Purina Petcare in India

Nestle unit has acquired the Purina Petcare brand in the country for ₹125.3 crore. The Swiss multinational food company made the announcement of its new acquisition in India on Thursday, July 28.

As per Business Standard, in addition to the acquisition of India’s Purina Petcare pet food brand, Nestle also announced the launch of its Gerber nutrition brand in the country. The information was shared during the company’s June quarter earnings report that took place this week.

The Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) Vevey, Switzerland-based food company, further noted that it is seeing the early indications of prices of commodities, including packaging materials and edible oils easing up. Thus, this is a good time to expand its pet foods business through the deal.

The acquisition will give Nestle access to the fast-growing pet care business in the second most populous country in the world. Both Nestle India and Purina Petcare India are subsidiaries of Nestle S.A., and based on the regulatory filing, the former’s board gave the go signal for “the acquisition of Pet Foods Business (PFB) from Purina Petcare India through business transfer."

Nestle S.A. fully owns Purina Petcare India, while it only holds 62.76% of its Indian unit. In any case, the deal is expected to be completed on Oct. 1.

Nestle India stated in the filing, "The company and Nestle Group have agreed to a value of ₹123.5 crore as the consideration for the purchase of PFB, which works out to around 3.4 times the turnover of Purina Petcare India for the financial year ended March 31, 2022."

LiveMint further quoted Nestle India’s chairman and managing director, Suresh Narayanan, as saying with regards to the decision to acquire Purina Petcare, “There are far greater synergies with evolution in channel strategies now than when the business was launched in 2018 and the pet food business of Purina Petcare India has gained traction amongst Indian pet owners and established the pet food brands across key segments while building a robust pet specialty distribution network.”

Finally, once the Purina Petcare business is transferred to Nestle India, it is expected to give the latter more access to the local pet foods industry, which has grown and is still projected to grow more in the coming years.