Geoffroy Lefebvre | CEO, Nasta
After a decade in Swiss luxury watchmaking, Nasta CEO Geoffroy Lefebvre made an unexpected leap into pet food — and found the industries aren't as different as they seem. In this Q&A, he breaks down how craftsmanship and trust translate into pet nutrition, why the category is premiumizing fast, and how Nasta's acquisition of FirstMate unlocks vertically integrated manufacturing in North America.
After a decade in Swiss luxury watchmaking, Nasta CEO Geoffroy Lefevbre made an unexpected move into pet food — and quickly realized the two industries aren’t as different as they seem. In our conversation, he shares how luxury principles like craftsmanship and trust translate into pet nutrition, why the category is rapidly premiumizing, and how Nasta is building a vertically integrated pet food platform across Europe and North America.
You spent years in Swiss watchmaking before stepping into pet care. When you first made that switch, what felt completely different, and what felt surprisingly familiar?
Watchmaking is reputedly a complex endeavour, with hundreds of miniature pieces to compose a mechanical movement. In pet food, the complexity is there as well, but different, for instance, in the variety of regulations you are exposed to as an international business, or simply the fact that it is not an exact science, and a recipe will, in the end, only be validated through palatability testing by actual pets!
Familiar, on the other hand, is the aspiration of customers for always better, more suited, and more sophisticated products, in an industry that is premiumising at a great pace.
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