Nestle Sues Blue Buffalo

[Del Lolo]

Nestle Purina PetCare Co. filed suit Tuesday against Blue Buffalo Co. Ltd., accusing its competitor of misleading consumers about the ingredients in its dog and cat foods.

The lawsuit accuses Wilton, Connecticut-based Blue Buffalo of false advertising, disparagement and unjust enrichment. It was filed in U.S. District Court in St. Louis, where Purina is based.

Messages seeking comment from Blue Buffalo were not immediately returned.

The pet food industry in recent years has seen a trend toward premium foods, with consumers showing more willingness to spend more on food perceived to be better for their animals. Sales of more expensive brands rose 68 percent from 2002 to 2012, compared with 19 percent for mid-priced brands and 8 percent for economy brands, according to Euromonitor International.

Nestle Purina has been part of the trend, reporting solid growth in its high-end "made with natural ingredients" Beyond line.

Blue Buffalo advertises that its pet foods contain natural ingredients and do not contain chicken or poultry byproduct meals. The company also says the pet foods do not contain corn, wheat or soy — potential allergens for some pets.

The suit claims that testing by an independent lab and funded by Purina showed that several Blue Buffalo products contained "significant" percentages of poultry byproduct meal and corn. The suit also says several products promoted as "grain-free" contain rice hulls.

"Despite Blue Buffalo's massive marketing barrage, Purina has discovered that Blue Buffalo — and not the 'big name' pet food manufacturers Blue Buffalo routinely criticizes in its advertising — is concealing the truth about the ingredients in its products," the lawsuit states.

The lawsuit asks the court to force Blue Buffalo to run corrective advertising to show that its products contain chicken byproducts, and to pay damages to Nestle Purina "for all gains, profits, savings and advantages obtained by Blue Buffalo as a result of its false advertising and unfair competition."

Nestle Purina PetCare is the nation's largest pet food maker. It is a unit of Nestle, the Swiss-based food and drinks company.[/I]

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStor ... s-23605975
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Blue Buffalo response:

Dear Pet Parents,

I’m writing to you about the lawsuit Nestle Purina filed today alleging that Blue Buffalo has lied to you about the ingredients in our pet foods. We categorically deny all of these false allegations and will aggressively defend the integrity of our brand and our products. It is an easy thing to make unsubstantiated claims, put them in a lawsuit and then publish them all over the web to disparage and defame a company. It is quite another thing to prove those allegations.

Please be assured that unlike Nestle Purina:

Blue Buffalo does not use chicken by-product meal or poultry by-product meal in any of our products
Blue Buffalo does not use ground corn in any of our products
Blue Buffalo does not use artificial preservatives in any of our products

We will prove these and other matters in the court with good reliable evidence, and we look forward to disproving the voodoo science that Nestle Purina relied on to support their outrageous allegations.

We’re disappointed to see one of the largest food companies in the world with over $100 billion in sales launching such a baseless lawsuit against a family-run company and attempting to prosecute it on the Internet. In some ways this attack by Nestle Purina is not too surprising, since pet parents have demonstrated their preference by selecting true natural foods like Blue Buffalo instead of the by-product and corn-based pet foods Nestle Purina has been selling for years. In fact, their inability to compete successfully with natural pet foods is the key motivation for this frivolous lawsuit.

My sons and I founded Blue Buffalo with the mission of bringing transparency to pet foods, and made the True Blue Promise to our pet parents. Clearly, some of our major competitors, who have built their business using lower cost ingredients, are upset. We will always stand behind our promise and our products.

We have a saying at Blue Buffalo: “When we’re right, we fight.” We look forward to seeing Nestle Purina in court.

http://www.bluebuffalo.com/news/nestle-purina-response[/QUOTE]

[Nutmeg247]

Hmmm...I dislike lawsuits to address what is at the end of the day a "fluffy natural foods/health foods versus science" dispute. I view Blue Buffalo and other brands with "natural" marketing as sort of like Whole Foods, bound to be a lot of bs and high prices, but sometimes neat stuff, too. Problem is, Purina does have a line that jumps on that bandwagon.

There is some wiggle language in the BB response -- they say they don't use ground corn, which could if I read that right leave corn that is not "ground" up for grabs to still use. Should be interesting to see the (expensive) outcome either way.

[ezzy333]

I am in favor of anything that helps bring honesty back into advertising.

Ezzy

[dan v]

David vs. Goliath? Granted 3/4 of a billion isn't in the ballpark of 100 billion....but $700-800 million ain't exactly chump change.

A snip from thedeal.com.

But as the company's revenues head north of $600 million this year -- and may be between $700 million and $800 million, sources say -- an IPO could make more sense at this stage.

Read more: Blue Buffalo could see IPO, sale in 2014 - The Deal Pipeline (SAMPLE CONTENT: NEED AN ID?) http://www.thedeal.com/content/consumer ... z31XWQrzwt