Blue Buffalo headquarters to stay in Wilton
General Mills committed to keeping the headquarters of Blue Buffalo Pet Products in Wilton after spending $8 billion in April
2018 to acquire the premium pet food maker.
Blue Buffalo is expanding to
50,000 square feet at its River Road offices in Wilton’s center, according to the commercial real estate advisory firm CBRE, about a third more space than Blue Buffalo had in an earlier lease that was to expire in 2021 and sufficient for at least 200 employees.
The Blue Buffalo lease was the third largest in southwestern Connecticut during the final quarter of
2018. New York Comic Con producer Reed Exhibitions took nearly
95,000 square feet at 201 Merritt 7, where Xerox has its headquarters; as does the ginger beer maker Reed’s.
Blue Buffalo has been one of Connecticut’s runaway successes of the past two decades. The company was created by Bill Bishop Sr. with sons Billy and Chris to market pet food after experimenting with recipes for a family dog.
The company went public in
2015, with General Mills pouncing last year as Blue Buffalo steadily increased market share against the Nestle’s Purina and other major brands. In its most recent quarterly report, General Mills valued the Blue Buffalo brand alone at $2.7 billion.
Under Blue Buffalo CEO Billy Bishop, the company has been working to expand its distribution in supermarkets such as Stop & Shop and other mass retail channels. A Susquehanna International Group analyst said in mid-November that the pet-food industry is expecting a major Blue Buffalo expansion into Walmart under General Mills ownership.
In mid-December, General Mills CEO Jeff Harmening predicted “tremendous long-term growth for the Blue brand” with sales up 9 percent over the preceding two fiscal quarters.
Harmening said Blue Buffalo is making strides in its line of pet treats such as dog jerky and Sizzlers moist treats, with growth of 20 percent in that broader category. Harmening drew an analogy to snacks sold by General Mills under brands such as Annie’s, Bugles, Chex and Nature Valley.
“Treats — I mean, that’s just ‘pet-food speak’ for snacking,” Harmening said on a December conference call. “We see snacking trends in human food and ... pet (food) the same way; and one of the things when we bought Blue Buffalo we were excited about was that the ‘humanization’ of pet food . ... We think it’s a huge opportunity.”