WellPet

WellPet LLC

Type	Privately held subsidiary
Industry	Pet food
Predecessor	Old Mother Hubbard, Eagle Pack Pet Foods, Inc.
Founded	1926 (Old Mother Hubbard) 1970 (Eagle Pack Pet Foods) 2008 (WellPet LLC)
Headquarters	Tewksbury, Massachusetts, United States
Area served	United States & Canada
Products	Dog & cat food, treats, & supplements
Employees	200+
Parent	Berwind Corporation
Website	http://www.wellpet.com

WellPet LLC is a cat and dog food company formed by the combination of Eagle Pack Pet Foods and Old Mother Hubbard,^[1] after both had been purchased by Berwind Corporation. Their brand names are Wellness, Holistic Select, Eagle Pack, Prism, Hy-Ration, Old Mother Hubbard, Holistix, and (previously) Neura Meats. The company is a fully owned subsidiary of Berwind Corporation, along with (among others) Elmer's Glue and the National Pen Company.^[2]

History

Old Mother Hubbard

Old Mother Hubbard was founded in 1926, as an off-shoot of the A. Hubbard and Sons Bakery in Gloucester, Massachusetts, making small dog biscuits. In 1961, the company was purchased by Jim Scott, a professional in animal nutrition, and moved to Lowell, Massachusetts. In the 1990s, Jim Scott Jr., then CEO of the company, worked with a team of animal nutrition experts to develop the Wellness brand dog and cat foods, which went on the market in 1999 and 2000, respectively.

In 2004 the Scott family recapitalized under the Catterton Partners investment group, who retained partial ownership with the Scott family. In 2005, OMH shut down their food production facility in Lowell, laying off over 100 employees.^[3] At this point, Old Mother Hubbard produced none of their own products, as manufacturing was outsourced between 11 different contracted companies.^[4]

Eagle Pack

Eagle Pack started in 1970, producing their Hy-Ration brand dog food. In 2000, the Eagle Pack Holistic Select line was launched.^[5] In September 2004, Eagle Pack was purchased by Swander Pace Capital. SPC hoped to increase efficiency by "transition from a family-run business." SPC redesigned the packaging, and spent $1.3 Million on expanding the warehouse, outsourced the freight logistics while expanding the sales force, and replaced many in management (including the CFO).^[6] Although their cans are produced by Menu Foods, they have not been involved in any recalls.^[7]

WellPet

In October 2007 Eagle Pack was sold to Berwind Corporation for an undisclosed amount. In August of 2008 Wellness/Old Mother Hubbard was sold to Berwind ^[8] for $400 Million, generating a 7x profit on Catterton's initial investment. ^[9] Between 2008 and 2009, Eagle and OMH were merged into a single entity, Wellpet LLC. ^{[10] [11]} Around 90 of the company's 200+ employees are salespeople. ^[12] In 2009, a lawsuit was filed against Wellness and PetCo, alleging that Wellness's claim of "human grade" was untrue, and that the food contained feathers and non-human-grade cuts of meat.^[13] The case was dismissed with prejudice on November 18th, 2010. ^[14]

References

1. ^ Join Our Team - WellPet – The Healthiest Natural Products for Pets
2. ^ Berwind: Berwind Natural Resources Corporation
3. ^ http://nl.newsbank.com/nl-search/we/Archives?p_product=LOWB&p_theme=lowb&p_action=search&p_maxdocs=200&p_topdoc=1&p_text_direct-0=107EA405890C799C&p_field_direct-0=document_id&p_perpage=10&p_sort=YMD_date:D&s_trackval=GooglePM
4. ^ Eat well, be well - Old Mother Hubbard pet food
5. ^ http://www.holisticselect.com/philosophy.aspx
6. ^ Consumer Products-Private Equity Case Studies-Swander Pace Capital (SPC)
7. ^ http://www.eaglepack.com/recall_stmt.html
8. ^ Berwind Corporation Mergers and Acquisitions - AlacraStore.com
9. ^ http://pereport.rrd.com/pereport/Docs/PE_Report_08_18_08.pdf
10. ^ An interview with Tim Callahan, CEO, WellPet
11. ^ legacy of eagle dog food | GREATDANELADY.COM
12. ^ Staying the course
13. ^ http://www.courthousenews.com/2009/08/31/Pet_Food_Isn_t_Human_Grade_Class_Claims.htm
14. ^ http://dockets.justia.com/docket/california/cacdce/2:2009cv06194/452424/

External links

• http://www.wellpet.com/