ANOTHER PET FOOD SOLD TO A BIG CORPORATION

Another pet food merger was just announced.  Wellpet LLC, has acquired Sojos, a family-owned company offering a line of raw, freeze-dried pet food for dogs and cats.

While WellPet is based in Tewksbury, Massachusetts, USA, the company says Sojos will continue to be based in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

WellPet says there will be no changes in the day-to-day operations of either company and that Sojos co-owners will assist with the transition.

Wellpet LLC makes five brands of pet food, including Wellness, Holistic Select, Eagle Pack, Old Mother Hubbard and Sojos.

Wellpet LLC is owned by Berwind Corporation, which is an investment management company. The biggest question we need to ask: is this investment management company truly interested in the well being of our pets, or are they more interested in the bottom line? If present company management at Sojo's maintains autonomy in decision making, there should be no change in quality. But with any buy-out, there are guaranteed to be changes coming. We will have to wait and see.

This information (which is just good business sense) came from the Berwind Corporation website:

Berwind Corporation ACQUISITION CRITERIA

Market position
Acquisition targets should be leaders within their niche market.

Profitability
We measure value at the gross margin level. Berwind only considers companies that consistently deliver high gross margins.

Ownership
We insist on 100% ownership. We are a cash buyer.