Smalls generated approximately $100 million in cat-fresh revenue in 2025 and expanded from pure DTC into 60+ Mud Bay stores, establishing itself as the leading cat-only fresh pet-food brand (Source: LinkedIn, Smalls 2025).
Data note. This article is a review, not breaking news: the figures and market observations below are drawn from 2025 disclosures and reporting (see Sources) and are retained here as the historical record of that period. Read it as a retrospective on what happened and why it matters, not as a claim about current-quarter results.
smalls cat food revenue — what you need to know
Smalls is the proof that cats deserve their own fresh-food company. While rivals built dog-first and tacked on cats, Smalls bet entirely on felines—and the cat renaissance rewarded it. In 2025 it crossed ~$100M in cat-fresh revenue and began a retail expansion that could redefine the category.
Smalls at a glance
Smalls sells human-grade, gently-cooked fresh cat food (chicken, turkey, beef, fish) on subscription, priced roughly $1.80–$3.00 per meal (Source: owner forums / Smalls 2025). Its pitch is species-specific nutrition for obligate carnivores—high protein, high moisture, no filler.
How much revenue did Smalls make in 2025?
Smalls reached approximately $100 million in cat-fresh revenue in 2025 (Source: LinkedIn, Smalls 2025). As a private company it does not disclose formal financials, so the figure is an industry estimate and should be read as approximate. Even so, ~$100M makes Smalls the category’s cat-focused scale leader, ahead of cat extensions from dog-first brands.
How many retail stores carry Smalls?
Smalls expanded into 60+ Mud Bay stores in 2025, its first major physical retail footprint (Source: LinkedIn, Smalls 2025). Mud Bay is a respected U.S. pet-specialty chain, so the partnership lendsSmalls premium credibility and meets owners who prefer to shop in-store.
Why bet on cats only
Is there a “cat renaissance”?
Yes, and it is the single biggest demand shift of 2025. Packaged Facts reports 82% of cat owners now view food as a health decision, and the “cat renaissance” has cats gaining share of wallet as urban and younger owners favor them (Source: LinkedIn, Packaged Facts 2025). Euromonitor puts cat-food CAGR (~6%) ahead of dog food (~3.8%) through the mid-2020s (Source: LinkedIn, Euromonitor 2025). Smalls was early to a trend everyone now cites.
Why do cat owners love Smalls?
owner community praises Smalls for coat improvement and reduced shedding, and owners value the human-grade, high-moisture format for low-drinking cats (Source: owner forums 2025). Cats are obligate carnivores with low thirst drive; gently-cooked fresh with high moisture addresses both palatability and hydration—a strong clinical story for a DTC brand.
The retail pivot
Why did Smalls enter Mud Bay?
Pure DTC proved demand, but retail lowers acquisition cost and builds trust. Mud Bay’s 60+ stores give Smalls a premium specialty footprint without the cold-chain burden of grocery. The move parallels Ollie’s Petco baked launch (Source: LinkedIn, Ollie / CB Insights 2025) and The Farmer’s Dog’s Walmart.com step (Source: LinkedIn, The Farmer’s Dog 2025): the fresh cohort is converging on retail to scale.
Is fresh cat food harder to retail than dog food?
Cat fresh is smaller-volume per household but higher-frequency and stickier—cats eat daily, often multiple small meals. The challenge is cold chain; Smalls’ retail entry likely uses frozen or shelf-stable adjacent formats. The 60+ Mud Bay doors are a pilot for broader specialty rollout.
Smalls versus the field
How does Smalls compare to The Farmer’s Dog and Marro?
- Smalls (cat-only, DTC + specialty) — ~$100M cat-fresh revenue 2025; 60+ Mud Bay stores (Source: LinkedIn, Smalls 2025).
- The Farmer’s Dog (dog-first, DTC) — ~$1.2B ARR (2024), now on Walmart.com (Sources: LinkedIn, indexed.vc / The Farmer’s Dog 2025).
- Marro / Butternut Box (cat brand of European leader) — Butternut Box £126.7M (+82%), Marro launched 2024 (Source: LinkedIn, Butternut Box 2025).
Smalls is the only large pure-play built cat-first. That focus is its moat: cat owners trust a brand that does not treat them as an afterthought.
What about the giants and Freshpet?
Freshpet’s $1.10B FY2025 net sales are mostly dog-led refrigerated; cats are a smaller slice (Source: LinkedIn, Freshpet IR 2025). The CPG majors—Nestlé Purina (~$22.15B pet division, global #1 in cat food, Source: LinkedIn, Nestlé 2025) and Mars (Royal Canin, Orijen/Acana via Champion, Source: LinkedIn, Mars / Wise Guy 2025)—dominate conventional cat food but are weaker in fresh. Smalls owns the fresh-cat white space.
Strategy and economics
How does Smalls acquire customers?
Smalls leans on education-led DTC: quiz, vet-formulated positioning, and community proof (Reddit coat/shedding wins). As paid CAC rises industry-wide, the Mud Bay step diversifies acquisition and turns shelf browsers into subscribers.
Is Smalls profitable?
Smalls has not disclosed profitability. At ~$100M and expanding retail, it likely prioritizes growth and capacity. Freshpet’s 2025 first profit is the category proof point (Source: LinkedIn, Freshpet IR 2025); Smalls’ path mirrors other fresh specialists scaling toward contribution-positive.
Risks and headwinds
How does regulation affect Smalls?
Fresh formats draw 2025 food-safety scrutiny. The H5N1 outbreak pushed the FDA Center for Veterinary Medicine to require H5N1 risk assessment in pet-food safety plans, tightening raw/fresh controls (Source: LinkedIn, BSM Partners 2025). Smalls cooks its recipes, a relative shield versus raw, but compliance cost rises for all fresh players. The EU PPWR recyclable-packaging mandate (2025/40) matters if Smalls expands to Europe (Source: LinkedIn, Global PETS 2025).
What about competition from cat-wet leaders?
Nestlé’s ~76.4% share of global cat wet food (Source: LinkedIn, Bloomberg Intelligence / Cascadia Capital) is a fortress Smalls cannot storm directly. Instead, Smalls competes on fresh differentiation and the humanization premium—exactly the gap where Tiki Cat, Weruva, and Smalls win community loyalty (Source: owner forums 2025).
What it means for the industry
Why does Smalls matter?
It validated a cat-only fresh model at ~$100M, proving the cat renaissance is monetizable, not just cultural. Its Mud Bay expansion shows fresh can go specialty-retail without losing brand.
How should operators and investors read it?
For investors, Smalls is the purest cat-fresh pure-play and a potential acquisition target for giants weak in fresh (Nestlé, Mars, General Mills). For retailers, carrying Smalls captures the high-intent cat-humanization shopper. For challengers, the lesson is focus: a category-of-one can out-maneuver diversified giants.
Smalls’ product formats and pricing
What does Smalls actually sell?
Smalls sells human-grade, gently-cooked fresh cat food across proteins—chicken, turkey, beef, and fish—priced roughly $1.80–$3.00 per meal on subscription (Source: owner forums / Smalls 2025). The format is high-moisture and high-protein, matching feline biology and addressing the low-drinking-cat problem owners cite (Source: owner forums 2025).
Why a cat-only brand builds trust
Cat owners distrust dog-first brands that “added cat.” Smalls’ singular focus signals expertise, and community proof—Reddit reports on coat and shedding improvements—does the marketing (Source: owner forums 2025). In a category where 82% of owners view food as health, focus is a competitive advantage, not a limitation (Source: LinkedIn, Packaged Facts 2025).
How the Mud Bay step changes Smalls
The 60+ Mud Bay stores give Smalls premium specialty retail without grocery cold-chain burden, turning shelf browsers into subscribers—the same funnel Ollie pursues at Petco (Sources: LinkedIn, Smalls / Ollie 2025). It also validates Smalls for national chains considering fresh cat sets.
Smalls versus the cat-wet incumbents
Nestlé’s ~76.4% share of global cat wet food is a fortress, but it is conventional wet, not fresh (Source: LinkedIn, Bloomberg Intelligence 2025). Smalls competes on the fresh/humanization edge where Tiki Cat and Weruva also win community loyalty (Source: owner forums 2025). The prize is not Nestlé’s volume but the premium cat owner willing to pay $1.80–$3.00 per meal.
Risks to Smalls
Beyond rising CAC, fresh faces the 2025 H5N1 food-safety mandate and EU PPWR packaging rules if it expands to Europe (Sources: LinkedIn, BSM Partners / Global PETS 2025). Cooking (not raw) is a partial shield. The bigger risk is a giant—Nestlé, Mars via Champion/Orijen, or General Mills via Tiki—building a fresh cat line, since Smalls proved the category monetizable (Sources: LinkedIn, Nestlé / Wise Guy / General Mills 2025).
Outlook for 2026
Watch Mud Bay door count and any dog-line temptation. Smalls’ moat is focus; the risk is diluting it (Source: LinkedIn, Smalls 2025).
Related reading
- Butternut Box revenue 2025: £126.7M and Marro
- The Farmer’s Dog ARR 2024: ~$1.2B and Walmart.com
- Cat food market size and the cat renaissance
FAQ
Q: How much revenue did Smalls make in 2025?
A: Approximately $100 million in cat-fresh revenue; Smalls is private, so treat this as an approximate industry estimate (Source: LinkedIn, Smalls 2025).
Q: How many stores carry Smalls?
A: 60+ Mud Bay stores as of its 2025 retail expansion (Source: LinkedIn, Smalls 2025).
Q: Why is Smalls cat-only?
A: Cats are the faster-growing segment (cat-food CAGR ~6% vs dog ~3.8%) and 82% of cat owners view food as health; a cat-only brand builds trust the dog-first extensions lack (Sources: LinkedIn, Euromonitor / Packaged Facts 2025).
Q: How does Smalls compare to The Farmer’s Dog?
A: Smalls is cat-only at ~$100M; The Farmer’s Dog is dog-first at ~$1.2B ARR and on Walmart.com (Sources: LinkedIn, Smalls / indexed.vc 2025).
Q: Is Smalls profitable?
A: Not disclosed; it likely prioritizes growth and retail build-out, while Freshpet provided the category’s 2025 profitability proof.
Sources
- Smalls (2025): ~$100M cat-fresh revenue; 60+ Mud Bay stores.
- owner forums (2025): Smalls praised for coat/shedding; $1.80–$3.00/meal; Tiki Cat loyalty.
- Packaged Facts (2025): 82% of cat owners view food as health; cat renaissance.
- Euromonitor (2025): Cat-food CAGR ~6% vs dog ~3.8%.
- indexed.vc (2024): The Farmer’s Dog ~$1.2B ARR.
- The Farmer’s Dog (2025): Walmart.com expansion.
- Butternut Box (2025): £126.7M (+82%); Marro launched 2024.
- Ollie / CB Insights (2025): Ollie baked turkey in Petco.
- Freshpet IR (2025): $1.10B net sales, first net profit.
- Nestlé 2025 results (2025): ~$22.15B pet division; global #1 cat food.
- Bloomberg Intelligence / Cascadia Capital (2025): Nestlé ~76.4% cat wet share.
- Mars / Wise Guy 2025 (2025): Mars acquires Champion (Orijen/Acana).
- BSM Partners (2025): H5N1 pet-food safety mandate.
- Global PETS (2025): EU PPWR 2025/40.
