High-growth fresh petfood brand Butternut Box continued its rapid European expansion last year while cutting losses as margins improved.
The subscription-focused group, which has raised over £100m from investors to date to scale up operations, posted sales of £126.7m in the year to 31 December 2023, representing growth of 82% year on year.
Growth was underpinned by continued scaling up of its UK operations and expansion of its international operations, which were boosted by the acquisition of Polish petfood player PsiBufet in April 2023.
The group said its overall number of active subscribers grew by 43.5%, in part driven by new expansion in 2022 into Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium.
UK sales came in at £107m, but the group grew ex-UK sales from £4m to almost £20m during the year.
Operational and volume efficiencies, aided by investment in its production facilities, saw gross margins rise to 47.5% from 37.9%, which was also supported by pricing and NPD.
An increase in gross profit from £26.3m to £60.2m enabled its operating loss to be cut by 61% to £9.4m from £23.9m.
Despite continued investment in R&D, capex, marketing and headcount, the group expects this improvement in core profitability to continue to as it benefits from scale and automation.
A spokesman said: “We’re thrilled to be driving the growing number of households switching to fresh petfood across Europe.
“In 2024 we’ve continued to invest heavily in the quality of our meals, whilst benefiting from the efficiency gains that have come from expanding further into new markets our first retail partnership.”
Butternut Box announced its move into UK physical retail in August, with an exclusive retail partnership with national retailer Pets at Home.
Additionally, it launched its second brand during the year, with fresh catfood brand Marro.
In the third quarter of 2023 the group raised a further £280m of growth funds, led by new investor General Atlantic and long-time backer L Catterton in a funding round reported to value the company at over £500m.
The spokesman added: “In 2025, we’re looking forward to feeding many more pets from our brand new head office, designed with dogs at the very heart.
“We’re incredibly thankful to our customers for their vote of confidence and continued support in choosing to feed Butternut Box, and helping us to live out our mission of delivering health and happiness to dogs and their humans, everywhere.”
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