Musti enters Portuguese pet market with €12.9M acquisition

Nordic pet care specialist Musti Group has acquired the Portuguese retailer and services provider ZU. The company announced that it bought 100% of its shares from the retailer MC for €12.9 million ($15M) on 5 December, paying in cash.

With the addition of the firm’s 65 stores, including 24 featuring integrated veterinary clinics, Musti will expand its network to 474 pet stores, 54 clinics and 196 spas across 7 countries, the company says.

Both Musti and MC are part of the Portuguese multinational Sonae Group, which recently acquired the Nordic pet retailer.

€470 million in sales

“Adding ZU to the Musti Group is a step in our expansion outside the Nordics and Baltics. We look forward to working with the ZU team to replicate Musti’s Nordic market leadership in Portugal,” says CEO David Rönnberg.

“With combined sales of around €470 million ($548M), this integration marks a new chapter for ZU, following a successful period of growth and consolidation within MC,” adds Sonae.

According to the Portuguese corporation, Musti will now manage all Sonae’s pet-related businesses. “The concentration of our retail and pet care activities within Musti reinforces the Group’s position in this market, providing clear synergies and economies of scale,” says CFO João Dolores.

How the integration will work

ZU’s stores will continue to operate under the brand, and all current customer benefits will remain, including those in partnership with the supermarket chain Continente. 

“In the future, the integration of operations will allow Portuguese consumers to benefit from Musti’s innovations, with the developed products and services being integrated into the offering in Portugal,” Sonae says, without disclosing how long the integration process might take.

The retailer’s aggregated statutory revenue was €27.6 million ($32.1M) in fiscal year (FY) 2024, a 30.8% increase from FY2023, and its adjusted EBITDA reached €800,000 ($933K). 

This means the acquisition had a roughly 16× adjusted EBITDA multiple based on the 2024 figure. The company also reported €13.7 million ($16M) in assets and €10.3 million ($12M) in liabilities.

Musti’s financials 

The Nordic group released its Q3 earnings in mid-November with mixed results. Its 14.2% year-over-year (YoY) increase in net sales, reaching €127.3 million ($140M), was driven by strong growth in Norway and Finland and boosted by the acquisition of Pet City in the Baltics a year ago.

Store sales grew, as the group opened 5 new locations during the quarter. Like-for-like store sales also increased, although at a slower pace. However, Musti registered a small profit of €200,000 ($230K), a 93.7% YoY decrease.

For the first 9 months of 2025, revenue increased at a similar rate to the quarter, 14.3% to €368.9 million ($406M), with growth recorded across all markets. But the profitability problems were more pronounced year-to-date, as the company posted a €4.2 million ($4.9M) loss.

ZU is not the first acquisition of the year for Musti. In January, its Norwegian subsidiary announced the purchase of 40% of Petrus Veterinærer, a veterinary company operating 2 clinics in Oslo. At the time, the group stated that Petrus’s revenue in 2023 was NOK 13 million ($1.3M/€1.1M) and that it was profitable.