What we know about the acquisition of vegan dog food brand THE PACK

As the cultivated meat market continues to innovate and expand, positioning to play a key role in the future of pet food, strategic partnerships are emerging.

The most recent involves the plant-based dog food brand THE PACK, which Romanian manufacturer Prefera Petfood has acquired.

According to Prefera, the British player is expected to bring “a host of new high-quality nutrition products to the market.”

THE PACK recently became the first company to sell cultivated meat pet treats worldwide.

Milestone moment

GlobalPETS has been speaking with Damien Clarkson, the Founder and CEO of THE PACK, to learn more about the acquisition, what it means for the brand and his insights into the growing cultivated meat industry.

A milestone moment that led to the 4-year-old UK brand joining Prefera was a chance meeting in 2022 between Clarkson and Prefera’s future Managing Partner, Nicola Magalini, at the Pet Care Innovation Summit in London. The pair stayed in contact.

“He was always a big fan of what me and Judy [Nadel, co-founder of THE PACK] were developing. And so, when he partnered last year to set up Prefera, he reached out, and we just started talking about maybe that we could work together,” recalls Clarkson.

Expanded operation

Prefera will now set up a UK operation, Prefera Petfood UK, with Clarkson and Nadel joining the Prefera team, and Magalini sees a bright future.

“THE PACK has been one of the pioneering companies in the emerging alternative protein pet food market,” he says. “Prefera are excited to add the brand to our growing portfolio of brands to work with Damien Clarkson and Judy Nadel in growing the brand across Europe and expanding their range of products vastly.”

Prefera recently announced a partnership with BioCraft Pet Nutrition. The Austrian company is a leader in cultivated mouse meat and has secured approval to sell its products in the EU. Clarkson sees an opportunity there, too.

“I’m yet to speak to Shannon [Falconer] at BioCraft about what that might look like, but I’m sure we’ll be having conversations about how THE PACK can partner with her company going forward,” he says.

New products

For Clarkson, after attending Zoomark, there will be a lot to do as he works with the Prefera team on new products and expansion to new markets beyond the UK, thanks to the scale of a larger operation, which wowed him when he visited its Romanian production facility.

“They’ve got all the in-house technical team, nutritionists, they do all the analysis there,” enthuses Clarkson. “And it’s just really exciting because me and Judy can [say] these are the products we want to create, and they can make them happen. And that will allow the business to grow much faster because we won’t have the constraints that you have as a small startup.”

Startup success

Reflecting on the success of THE PACK in just a few years since it was founded, Clarkson is proud of what’s been achieved, telling GlobalPETS that the Meatly trial run of 750 packs launched at one branch of Pets at Home sold out quickly and opens the door for growth.

“I think it sold beyond the expectations of Pets at Home, and I was very confident that it would sell very quickly,” he says. “I think what it means going forward is that we’re going to do more stuff in the cultured meat space with Meatly and hopefully on a bigger scale.”