JBT finalizes takeover of Marel, owner of Wenger

JBT finalizes takeover of Marel, owner of Wenger

The Chicago-based company expanded its international holdings in pet food machinery production.

American company John Bean Technologies (JBT) has announced its takeover of the Icelandic company Marel, a former competitor and owner of Kansas-based Wenger, after it acquired the firm in 2022.

The recently rebranded JBT Marel Corporation is strengthening its dominance in the pet food solutions market. Together, pet food will make up about 6% of the company’s portfolio.

The companies create machines for various production processes specific to pet food manufacturing, with creations made to speed up the production of dry and wet dog and cat food.

Mega-merger

In a December fireside chat, officials said there was relatively little overlap between the pet food processing equipment previously offered by Marel and JBT. This means the companies can offer more comprehensive end-to-end production solutions for pet food manufacturers.

JBT CEO Brian Deck says the merger will create value by “taking headaches away” from manufacturers.

He adds that it will mean “each piece of equipment talks to one other from an installation perspective, from an operating perspective, from a maintenance perspective, putting a digital solution around that to monitor how it’s performing. You take so much work away from your customer.”

Then-Marel CEO Árni Sigurdsson – now the President of JBT Marel – adds that the merged products will help eliminate factory errors.

“Sometimes, when you have multiple [machine] vendors in a factory, it’s not even clear where the problem lies,” he says. “The more you can integrate the solutions, [the more] you can also improve on the service.”