Gimborn Spent Years Buying Its Plant-Based Litter From Someone Else. That Just Changed.

Gimborn has relied on external sourcing for its plant-based litter range.

The company built Biokat's into a premium cat litter brand on bentonite, natural clay products manufactured in Kelheim, Germany. The source says bentonite has been the brand's core strength for 40 years. But when retailers and pet owners wanted plant-derived alternatives, Gimborn bought those formulations from outside suppliers.

Not anymore. Gimborn just acquired a majority stake in Cerberus Srl, an Italian specialist in plant-based cat litter. The deal integrates Cerberus's production facility near Varese into Gimborn's manufacturing network and brings founder Raffaele Darino's technical team in-house. The company says this is the first partnership of its kind in Gimborn's 171-year history, and that it will enable in-house manufacturing of plant-based litters for the first time.

The line it could never run in-house

Cerberus has focused exclusively on plant-based cat litter since its founding in 2015. Gimborn says the decision to acquire Cerberus was driven by the company's specialization and by Darino's technical expertise. The source describes a three-year strategic evaluation that led to the deal.

That matters because plant-based litter is a different product than bentonite. The source doesn't detail the formulation challenges, but Gimborn's statement makes clear that Cerberus brings specialist know-how the company didn't have internally. By combining what the source calls Cerberus's "technical mastery" with Gimborn's research and operational capabilities in bentonite, the company says it's positioned to develop new plant-based products.

The partnership also broadens Gimborn's private-label business. The source says Gimborn already offers private-label bentonite to European customers. The Varese facility adds plant-based manufacturing to that capability.

What the CEO actually said

"This partnership is the first of its kind in our 171-year history," said Jordi Queralt, Gimborn's CEO. "It may open up further opportunities for collaboration with existing or new partners and customers seeking innovative, high-quality and high-performance product solutions in this segment."

That's not merger-speak. That's a signal. Gimborn is treating this as a template, a way to add technical capability without building it from scratch. The company didn't say it's done looking for partners. It said this is the first.

Werner Averkamp, Gimborn's CFO, named the driver: "The plant-based litter segment offers attractive growth potential in Europe and internationally, driven by rising demand for sustainable, natural and high-quality pet care products." The source says demand for plant-derived alternatives is growing steadily, especially across Europe.

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Where this lands on the shelf

The source doesn't specify distribution plans beyond Europe. Gimborn says the partnership broadens its portfolio and enhances its ability to meet customer needs with plant-based solutions. The structure of the deal, vertical integration, in-house R&D, expanded private-label capacity, is the kind of move brands make when they're preparing to push harder.

If Biokat's launches or expands plant-based offerings in markets where you stock natural litter, you'll need to re-evaluate the set. A brand that controls its supply chain and manufacturing can often offer better terms than one that doesn't. That changes the margin math on what you're stocking now.

The other tell: Cerberus CEO Raffaele Darino said the partnership positions the companies to "offer more effective and competitive solutions." Both words in the same sentence usually means the company thinks it can out-perform what's already on the shelf.

Our read: when a brand brings production in-house, someone's margin changes

Gimborn moved from buying plant-based litter to making it. That shift typically means one of two things: the brand can now offer better trade terms because it controls more of the cost structure, or it plans to compete more aggressively on performance and price.

For store owners, that creates a decision point. If a brand you don't currently stock shows up with a plant-based line that performs well and costs you less than what you carry now, you'll need to know whether your current suppliers justify their shelf space. If they don't, the reset happens fast.

The thing to watch: whether Gimborn announces expanded retail strategy in the coming months, and whether the Cerberus formulations start appearing in new markets. If either happens, the natural litter category just got more competitive.

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