Sonae’s Musti Bet, 18 Months Later — Portuguese-Owned Nordic Pet Retail Grows 14%, Now Loops Back to Portugal via ZU

Eighteen months after Maia-headquartered retail group Sonae SGPS led an €868 million consortium take-private of Helsinki-listed Musti Group, the Nordic pet care chain has emerged as the single largest Portuguese-owned retail operation anywhere in Scandinavia. It is also one of the few concrete examples of Portuguese capital controlling a category leader across Finland, Sweden and Norway — a corridor reversal that the Lisbon-and-Porto business press still tends to under-narrate.

The numbers matter. Musti Group operates more than 340 stores across its Nordic home market and has reported sales up roughly 14% year-on-year in its most recent half-year disclosure, with continued momentum in like-for-like sales and margin expansion. The recovery has been driven by a combination of store network expansion, strong online penetration through pureplay brands such as Peten Koiratarvike and Vetzoo, and the integration of Pet City, the Baltic pet retailer Musti acquired in 2024.

Then came the Portugal loop. In a corporate-action step Portuguese retail watchers should not overlook, Musti has acquired ZU — the pet specialist brand operated inside MC, the Modelo Continente food-retail arm of the Sonae group. In effect, Musti now runs the largest pet specialist network in the Nordics and, through ZU, a growing footprint in Portugal. Musti’s stated plan is to replicate its Nordic playbook at the Iberian end of the corridor.

The take-private, recapped. In late 2023, a consortium led by Sonae SGPS together with Musti executives Jeffrey David, Johan Dettel and David Rönnberg launched a voluntary public tender offer through Flybird Holding Oy at €26 per share, valuing Musti’s equity at €868 million. By 2024 the consortium had secured more than 95% of the register and delisted the company from Nasdaq Helsinki. Sonae pitched the deal as a step into “high disposable income” Nordic consumer categories with structural premiumisation, a thesis that has largely held: Nordic pet spend has continued to outgrow general retail, and Musti’s own-label penetration has continued to climb.

Why the corridor angle matters

Portuguese companies do not often control Nordic category leaders. The direction of travel is usually the reverse — Swedish, Danish, Finnish and Norwegian capital acquiring, greenfielding or franchising into Portugal. IKEA, JYSK, H&M, Securitas, Boliden-Somincor, Diaverum, Sensio, IVC Evidensia, and Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners sit on one side of the ledger. Sonae’s Musti sits, almost alone, on the other.

That matters because it is a concrete template for Portuguese groups wondering whether Nordic assets are reachable. A mid-cap Iberian retailer financed a multi-country Nordic acquisition, retained local management, and has since grown organically while also bolting on the Baltics. The integration has not required moving headquarters, brand, or merchandising control out of the Nordics — a point the Finnish trade press has largely validated in coverage of Musti’s operational continuity.

Integration design decisions worth copying. Three things stand out in how Sonae has run Musti. First, Musti remained operationally autonomous, with Helsinki-led management and Nordic procurement. Second, the cross-border expansion — Baltics via Pet City, Portugal via ZU — has been pursued by Musti, not by Sonae at group level, which keeps commercial decision rights close to customer data. Third, Sonae has allowed Musti to continue to invest in own brand, veterinary clinics and services, rather than squeezing short-term margin for a leveraged-buyout-style exit. Eighteen months in, the company reads more like a scaling platform than a harvestable asset.

What comes next

The open question is how far Musti can go at the Iberian end of the corridor. ZU is a credible starting point but is not in the same league as Musti’s 340+ Nordic store footprint. Portugal’s specialist pet retail market is still fragmented; Spain is larger and more consolidated, but also more competitive. A Musti that grows ZU aggressively in Portugal, with optional Spain entry via acquisition, would start to look like a genuine Southwestern-European pet category leader under a single (Portuguese-owned) parent. That is a 2027–2028 story to watch, not a 2026 one.

For Nordic trade partners and category suppliers — food manufacturers, accessory vendors, veterinary services, and pet-tech startups — the implication is simpler. Musti’s procurement decisions now sit inside a group whose ultimate capital allocator is in Maia. That does not change the buying floor in Helsinki, but it does change the long-cycle capital-allocation conversation above it. Suppliers used to dealing with a listed Finnish buyer should calibrate for an owner with a longer horizon, more cash on the balance sheet, and an explicit corridor thesis.

For Portuguese operators, the signal is different. Musti is the most visible proof point that a Portuguese group can own, grow and integrate a Nordic category leader without Iberian HQ capture. That playbook — buy-and-keep-Nordic, rather than buy-and-relocate — is the one other Portuguese mid-caps considering a Nordic move should actually study.