European pet companies scale up production operations

New facilities, machinery upgrades and larger production systems are shaping the latest manufacturing investments across Europe’s pet industry, spanning pet food, supplementary feed and microalgae ingredients.

Canina Pharma

Canina Pharma, a German manufacturer of pet health supplements and pet care products, is investing €5.6 million ($6.5M) to expand its site in Hamm-Rhynern, 460 km west of Berlin.

The new facility will be dedicated exclusively to producing supplementary feed for pets. The company says the expansion will increase its production capacity in this category and enable it to respond more effectively to growing customer demand.

The investment will add approximately 1,500 square meters of production space through the acquisition of an additional property near the existing site.

Tim Spanke, CEO of Canina Pharma, told GlobalPETS that further investments in new machinery and equipment are expected to nearly double the company’s current production capacity once the new facilities are fully operational in fall 2027.

“In particular, the additional capacity will support the continued growth of our private-label and white-label business. It will also strengthen our ability to serve existing international markets and create opportunities to enter new markets as our business develops,” he adds.

Beyond expanding capacity, Canina Pharma will invest in the digitalization of production processes and install a new filling machine for pouch packaging, an additional mixing machine, comprehensive screening and sieving systems, and modern dust extraction systems.

Mars

Mars plans to invest approximately €85 million ($98.6M) in its German sites between 2026 and 2027, including more than €18 million ($20.9M) in its pet food facility in Verden.

The planned investment will cover new machinery and equipment for producing Sheba multipacks, while a further €6 million ($7M) is earmarked for installing a new pouch packaging line by the end of 2027.

“The Verden facility currently supplies almost 30 markets across Europe and beyond. This will remain unchanged, continuing to underpin the enduring significance of the Verden site for our regional supply. Looking ahead, Mars anticipates continuing its long-term investment in German pet food operations,” the company tells GlobalPETS.

Between 2021 and 2025, Mars invested €59 million ($68.4M) in the infrastructure of its German pet food division. The Verden site also serves as the company’s global center for wet pet food research.

Algiecel

Danish microalgae ingredients company Algiecel has opened a new production facility inside the Kalundborg site of global biotechnology company Novonesis in Denmark.

The Kalundborg facility increases Algiecel’s production capacity almost fivefold. The new reactor has a total volume of 5,500 liters, with 3,240 liters used to actively grow the microalgae, compared with 700 liters in its pilot system.

The company expects to produce 12 tonnes of biomass annually from 2027 for the pet food and cosmetics sectors as it transitions from sample-volume production to recurring commercial supply.

“At a moment when fish oil supply is under real pressure, this facility is where we prove we can deliver a reliable alternative, produced under industrial conditions, at the volumes our customers need. It’s the starting platform we’ll use to scale further as demand grows,” says Susanne Palsten Buchardt, CEO of Algiecel.

AktivDog

Swiss dog food manufacturer AktivDog plans to invest €8 million ($9.3M) to €10 million ($11.6M) in a new pet food production facility in Ocna Sibiului, Sibiu County, Romania, 301 km northwest of Bucharest. The site will cover approximately 4,000 square meters and have a maximum annual production capacity of around 5,000 tonnes.

The company chose Sibiu for its well-developed infrastructure, connections to the European highway network and international airport, which provides easy access from Switzerland. The region is also home to several suppliers that already serve AktivDog’s Swiss production operations through their locations in Switzerland.

AktivDog acquired the land earlier this year and is preparing to apply for a building permit. “The start of construction naturally depends on this permit, which we hope to receive by mid-2027. Production is then scheduled to begin in Q4 2028 or Q1 2029,” Yannik Steimer, Managing Director of AktivDog, tells GlobalPETS.

AktivDog manufactures wet dog food, with a small portion of its Swiss product range based on meat varieties sourced from other EU countries because they are unavailable in Switzerland. The company plans to produce these varieties at its new facility in Sibiu for both the European and Swiss markets.

“This will ensure a baseline utilization rate at the new production facility and free up new production capacity for AktivDog Switzerland to meet the demand for growth in the Swiss market,” Steimer says.

The company also sees further expansion potential at the site. “There is still some land available for development on the property we purchased, so the next growth phase after that will also take place in Sibiu,” he concludes.