Meijer, a US-based retailer operating 230 supercenters and grocery stores, has announced that it has added Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula line of products to its assortment of pet food. Meijer has store locations throughout Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky and Wisconsin.
As of August 7, 2017, Blue Buffalo Life Protection Formula is available in all Meijer stores. The product will soon be available to add to a home delivery order later in August 2017.
Meijer expanding pet department
Meijer continues to expand its pet product assortment – from food to care essentials to toys. Earlier in 2017, Meijer unveiled a new pet department format in all six of its new stores that opened in May. The enhanced department will be unveiled in all new and remodeled Meijer stores moving forward.
Meijer is a privately owned and family-operated company since 1934.
Blue Buffalo introduction to mass market
Blue Buffalo has also begun shipments of the Life Protection Formula line to Target, Kroger and Publix, and the company expect the products to appear in each store in August 2017.
Blue Buffalo’s introduction to the mass market will be as incremental to pet specialty businesses as possible. In the mass and grocery channel, Blue Buffalo will focus on smaller bag sizes, more mainstream formulas and wet foods and treats from their LPF product line.
Blue Buffalo Wilderness, Basics, Freedom and Earth’s Essentials lines will continue to be sold exclusively through the pet specialty channel. As such, pet specialty retailers will have the broadest BLUE assortment variety and the largest bag sizes.
Blue Buffalo sales growth
Despite facing a recent lawsuit over alleged lead in their dog food, Blue Buffalo sales remain steady. In 2016, Blue Buffalo reached roughly US$1.15 billion in annual revenue, according to the Petfood Industry Top Companies database. Although that is less than one-fifteenth of Mars Petcare revenues, Blue Buffalo showed the strongest growth by far between 2010 and 2016. Blue Buffalo’s compound annual growth rate (CAGR) was 18.4 percent during that period, compared to the second highest CAGR of 2.3 percent by Mars.
