VAFO Group bought Berlin DTC brand Pets Deli and plans to double its revenue by 2030

Pets Deli brings in roughly 40 million euros ($46.1 million) each year, and VAFO Group said it plans to double that figure by 2030 when it announced the purchase of the Berlin-based direct-to-consumer pet food company.

The 40 million euro base and what VAFO is buying

Pets Deli sells through its own website and Amazon, offering wet food, dry food, raw feeding options, snacks, and specialized supplements for dogs and cats. Tania Moser founded the brand, which markets itself around healthy nutrition tailored to individual pets.

Pavel Bouška, VAFO Group's chairman, described Pets Deli as "a strong brand, close to consumers, with a clear digital mindset and significant growth potential." The company said the deal supports its push into Germany, where the German Pet Trade and Industry Association reported total pet industry sales of nearly 7 billion euros ($8.1 billion) in 2025.

The purchase gives VAFO a consumer-facing brand that has built demand without relying on traditional retail partnerships. The company said it will fold Pets Deli's product line into its own operations to build stronger ties with end customers and take advantage of rising interest in premium, health-oriented pet nutrition.

The manufacturing integration timeline VAFO will not commit to

VAFO told GlobalPETS that folding Pets Deli's manufacturing and sourcing work into its own facilities will happen slowly, and the company cannot yet say when the process will finish. VAFO said it will start by looking for ways to add to Pets Deli's current lineup using products and capabilities the group already has in house.

Because Pets Deli sells a fairly wide range of products, bringing production in house "will therefore be a gradual process rather than an immediate transition," the company said. VAFO explained that the phased approach lets it figure out which of its manufacturing and sourcing resources make the most sense for the brand without disrupting what Pets Deli already offers.

Pascal Haenle, Pets Deli's managing director and COO, said the deal means "better products" for customers, delivered "faster, and at a stronger margin, without ever compromising on the quality they trust us for." Haenle added that "VAFO gives us operational firepower we couldn't have built on our own."

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The European expansion plan and the markets VAFO has not named

VAFO said it will look for chances to bring Pets Deli into additional European markets where the brand could succeed, but the company is not ready to name which countries it has in mind. "Our priority is to further strengthen the brand and identify the markets where its D2C model has the greatest potential for successful growth," the company said.

The deal follows VAFO's 2025 purchase of Azan, a major Polish pet food distributor the company had worked with for nearly three decades. That transaction expanded VAFO's distribution reach across the Czech Republic, Slovakia, and Poland. Earlier this year, VAFO split its business into three separate units (VAFO Praha, VAFO Production, and VAFO Private Labels) to make operations more efficient and work toward hitting 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) in revenue by 2029.

VAFO told GlobalPETS that the company keeps looking at acquisition targets that fit its strategy and could help drive future growth.

Our read on the DTC-to-specialty bet

The company's stated goal is to double Pets Deli's revenue by 2030. That growth could come from expanding Pets Deli's existing DTC and Amazon channels, from entering new European markets with the same model, or from adding specialty retail distribution that the brand has not prioritized to date.

The announcement does not show which of those three paths VAFO plans to prioritize, or whether the company intends to protect Pets Deli's DTC pricing when it begins selling through distributors and stores. A DTC brand entering specialty retail typically faces a choice: maintain DTC prices and risk channel conflict, or offer retail-exclusive SKUs at different price points. VAFO has not said which route it will take.

For an independent pet retailer, a proven DTC brand with established consumer demand may make a better or worse shelf partner than a legacy brand with existing retail relationships. The outcome depends on whether VAFO uses its manufacturing scale to hit specialty price points that pure DTC economics never allowed, or whether the brand's Amazon presence undercuts the store's margin before the product even arrives.

Watch for the first specialty distributor announcement and the pricing that comes with it. That will show whether this acquisition opens a new brand to your shelf or just funds a competitor's expansion.

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