United Petfood aims to acquire VPG

Dog and cat food manufacturer United Petfood of Belgium has announced that a share purchase agreement has been signed for the acquisition of Vital Petfood Group in Ølgod, Denmark. The takeover of the first plant in the Nordic region is part of the planned growth strategy of United Petfood, according to the company. Vital Petfood Group is a pet food business with extensive experience in the production of dry and semi-moist food for cats and dogs. The intended acquisition still needs to be approved by the Danish competition authorities.

"Thanks to the acquisition of the Vital Petfood Group, our network of production sites will be able to offer flexibility and brings our production closer to our customers also in the Nordics,” states the management of United Petfood.

“There has been a lot of consolidation within the pet food production industry during recent years. We wanted to find a new owner to continue developing our pet food production in the long run. This divestment enables us to focus and further strengthen our branded businesses within Nordic Pet Care Group.

Being one of the leading European producers of pet food, United Petfood was an obvious choice of partner and new owner of VPG. We are confident that VPG will benefit from United Petfood’s European customer footprint as well as extensive experience with operating multiple pet food production sites. Furthermore, we expect United Petfood to be able to utilise VPG’s strong position in the Nordics, and the Danish market in particular. We look forward to continuing and expanding the collaboration with United Petfood and keeping on producing Best Friend products at the Ølgod factory in the years to come,” said Nordic Pet Care Group CEO Mika Holappa.