How the merger of Natural Balance and Canidae saved both companies from a declining trend
The chairman of the newly created Ethos Pet Brands believes that the operation has stabilized their perfomance.
It has been more than 6 months since the announcement of the merger of Natural Balance Pet Foods and Canidae Pet Food company and the launch of a new brand to leverage the portfolio of both companies.
In a recent interview with Just Food, Ethos Pet Brands chairman Greg Shearson admitted that the merger has allowed both companies to move forward. “We went from being a business that was in a steady-state decline in the previous five to ten years to a business that had stabilized and had lots of opportunities for growth,” he says.
Shearson originally worked as a consultant for private equity firm Nexus, which acquired Natural Balance in 2020. After the merger, Canidae’s team—under L Catterton’s pet portfolio—was absorbed by the Californian firm.
During the interview, Shearson highlighted Canidae’s “great manufacturing asset” and admitted the company’s Texas facility was a “huge bonus” for Ethos’ new business plan. Currently, all products are being made in that facility.
More international presence
Shearson says the company wants to be “best-in-class” in North America, which means having a strong footprint in Canada and Mexico.
But there is also interest in expanding to more countries. “We feel like we can go international from this facility. We’re quite excited about what we bought into and our ability to make it even stronger,” he admits.
Around 10% of Natural Balance’s sales are international, but this is something that the company is looking to work on. “We’re starting to build supply chain relationships in other markets to help us get into some of the other places in the world we’d like to be able to get to,” concludes Greg Shearson.
