United Petfood expands North American manufacturing with Arkansas plant acquisition

United Petfood has agreed to acquire a dry pet food production facility in Decatur, Arkansas, from Wellness Pet Company, expanding its North American manufacturing network to three sites. The deal includes a long-term supply agreement and gives the Belgian private-label manufacturer additional capacity and flexibility to serve customers locally.

United Petfood has agreed to buy a dry petfood plant in Decatur, Arkansas, from Wellness Pet Company, adding a third North American production site and deepening its push into regional manufacturing. The deal also includes a long-term supply agreement, giving the Belgian group more capacity and flexibility in a market where proximity, speed and private-label reliability are increasingly valuable.

The acquisition follows United Petfood’s 2024 entry into the US, when it took over Wellness Pet’s Mishawaka, Indiana facility, and adds to its Drummondville, Quebec site in Canada. According to the company, the Arkansas plant will strengthen its local footprint and help it serve customers more closely from within North America rather than depending more heavily on transatlantic supply chains.

Dries Eeckhout, chief executive, said the Decatur site would provide “additional capacity and flexibility” and marked another step in building the group’s production base across the region. That rationale reflects a broader shift in petfood: retailers are demanding shorter lead times, more resilient supply and wider own-label ranges, from mainstream products to premium and functional lines. United Petfood, which has grown through acquisitions across Europe and North America, is positioning itself to capture that demand.