Musti grows sales 15.6% as expansion keeps pressure on earnings: full analysis
Musti Group opened 2026 with another quarter of double-digit growth, reporting net sales of €138.5 million for January through March, up 15.6% from a year earlier, even as its net loss widened to €3.8 million from €3.5 million. The company said growth was strongest in Norway, and the recently acquired Portuguese retailer ZU contributed €8.4 million in sales during the quarter. (mustigroup.com)
The result continues a broader expansion story for the Nordic pet care company. In December 2025, Musti bought ZU from MCRetail SGPS, extending its network at the time to 474 stores, 54 veterinary clinics, and 196 spas across seven countries. That followed earlier moves into newer markets, including the Baltics and Norway’s veterinary sector. In January 2025, Musti said it would enter the Norwegian veterinary market through a 40% stake in Petrus Veterinærer, a profitable clinic operator with two clinics. (mustigroup.com)
In the latest quarter, Musti’s total location count rose to 513, including stores and veterinary clinics. Norway stood out, with sales up 25.5% to €24.0 million and like-for-like growth of 12.6%, while Finland grew 3.0% and Sweden 8.7%. The new-markets segment, which now includes Portugal alongside the Baltics, generated €17.0 million in sales, up 100.6% year over year. Musti said Portugal’s ZU chain currently has 68 retail stores, 24 of them with veterinary clinics, while the Baltics business includes 49 retail stores and 16 veterinary clinics. (mustigroup.com)
At the same time, the earnings picture was more mixed. Operating result slipped to a loss of €1.4 million from a €0.1 million profit a year earlier, and adjusted EBITA edged down to €2.6 million from €2.7 million. Musti said adjusted EBITDA still increased to €14.2 million, but that figure was held back by roughly €1.0 million in incremental costs tied to backbone initiatives, including online and ERP platforms, central logistics, store planning, and assortment optimization. The company also disclosed a separate acquisition in Norway: it bought Petco Retail AS on February 18, 2026, adding three more stores in that market. (mustigroup.com)
Management framed the quarter as evidence that the company’s strategy is working. CEO David Rönnberg said the results reflected “strong growth, increased profitability and market share gains,” and argued that Musti’s investments in vertical integration, services, and geographic expansion should continue to support above-market growth. The company specifically said integration of ZU is underway, with benefits expected to contribute toward the end of 2026. I didn’t find substantial third-party analyst commentary on this quarter yet, but trade coverage has consistently positioned Musti as one of the more active consolidators in the European pet retail market following its Baltic and Portuguese acquisitions. (mustigroup.com)
Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, Musti’s update is less about a single quarterly earnings swing and more about the structure of the modern pet care market. The company’s growth strategy increasingly blends retail, e-commerce, grooming, and veterinary services under one umbrella. That matters because it can reshape referral patterns, client expectations, pricing pressure, and competition for veterinary talent, especially in markets where clinics are embedded inside retail footprints. Musti’s newer markets now include dozens of clinic-linked locations in Portugal and the Baltics, and Norway is emerging as another area where retail expansion and veterinary services are moving closer together. (mustigroup.com)
There’s also a practical signal in the margin story. Even with solid top-line growth, Musti is still absorbing the cost of integration and infrastructure upgrades. For veterinary teams and industry partners, that’s a reminder that scaled pet care platforms may keep investing heavily before they fully optimize clinic and retail economics. If those investments pay off, Musti could become a more formidable cross-border competitor in veterinary-adjacent services. If they don’t, the pressure to improve returns could influence how aggressively the company expands, integrates, or retools its service mix. (mustigroup.com)
What to watch: The next key question is whether Musti can turn sales momentum into cleaner earnings growth in the second half of 2026. Management says the long-term pet parenting trend remains intact and expects growth to continue above the underlying market, but the near-term test will be whether ZU integration, Norway expansion, and platform investments begin showing up in margins, not just revenue. (mb.cision.com)