Latest investments in pet food production capabilities
GlobalPETS compiles the investments and expansion plans pet players are putting in place to fuel manufacturing operations.
Pet players around the world are establishing or enhancing production facilities to meet growing market needs.
Anchor Ingredients
The specialty ingredient supplier has opened a new $40 million (€37.2M) transload and ingredient processing facility in Richmond, Indiana, to act as a distribution hub for top pet food brands.
“This marks a significant milestone for Anchor Ingredients, reaffirming our commitment to the pet food industry,” says Al Yablonski, company CEO and Co-Founder.
The 40-acre facility offers bulk storage, rail connections, climate-controlled warehouse space, safety stock management, grain organization, quality assurance testing and on-site processing, equipping it to provide ingredients to pet food manufacturers across North America.
Agravis Raiffeisen
The German-headquartered agriculture trading company invested €60 million ($64.3M) into building a distribution center in Nottuln, 140 km from Cologne.
It spans over 43,000 square meters and is designed to handle “high-performance, customer-oriented logistics and digital transformation.”
A company spokesperson confirmed to GlobalPETS that the site will be responsible for supplying pet food. The center is also expected to improve overall speed, efficiency and availability of goods.
AFB International
The Missouri-based pet food palatant supplier has set up its Asia Pacific Regional headquarters and manufacturing facility in Samut Prakan, 30 km from Thailand’s capital, Bangkok.
The new hub will serve as a “critical” operational center, enabling the company to streamline its production, increase efficiency and better serve existing customers in the region by being closer to their markets.
“We will be able to supply to all markets/customers across Asia from our new facilities in Thailand. We previously exported from [the] EU and [the] USA into the region. This will now transition to in-region supply,” says a company spokesperson.
The center also boasts research and development labs for product development and formulation, quality labs for product testing and administrative spaces.
Boehringer Ingelheim
The global pharmaceutical company has recently expanded its research and development (R&D) facility in Athens, Georgia, with an investment of $66.1 million (€61.5M). The company has increased the floor space from 28,000 square feet to 63,000 square feet and added a new administrative center to enhance its R&D capabilities.
The location houses the US Global Innovation Hub and is the company’s largest pet vaccine production facility for the domestic market.
Tebrio
Spanish biotech firm Tebrio has raised €30 million ($32.1M) in a funding round to speed up the construction of a 90,000-square-meter production plant in Salamanca.
Construction is underway, and the plant is expected to produce 100,000 tons of product annually. The company is known for producing and processing Tenebrio molitor, or mealworm.
GlobalPETS learned that the production volumes would be divided between pet food and other animal feed sectors.
Mister Pet
The family-owned Italian pet food company has opened a new production plant in the province of Parma.
The 24,000-square-meter facility, equipped with 4 extrusion and packaging lines, was established with a €45 million ($48.5M) capital injection.
The key purpose of the production unit is to expand the company’s presence to new markets, including South Africa, South Korea, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), in addition to the 55 countries in which it is already present.
Smack Pet Food
The Canadian manufacturer of premium raw dehydrated pet food has received 2 loans from the South Dakota Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED), Board of Economic Development, to construct a production site in Aberdeen City, Brown County.
A Rural Economic Development Initiative (REDI) loan of $1 million (€926K) and a South Dakota Works loan of $1.5 million (€1.3M) are expected to support the renovation of an existing building into a manufacturing unit that provides 158 full-time jobs.
This will be Smack Pet Food’s first facility in the United States, despite it being an active market for the company.
