ST. LOUS and GENOA, ITALY — On April 11, Whitebridge Pet Brands and Agras Pet Foods announced the completion of their merger. Both Whitebridge and Agras will operate under the name Whitebridge Pet Brands and will be owned by Belgian investment firm NXMH.

Whitebridge’s current Chief Executive Officer Olivier Amice will become CEO of the combined companies.

“Our goal has always been to build a global natural health nutrition company,” Amice said. “Together, Whitebridge and Agras make a major leap toward that goal with sales in more than fifty countries and four plants that service a larger geographic footprint. More importantly, Agras and Whitebridge are compatible, with talented teams, a shared nutritional belief of natural and minimally processed pet food and a portfolio of strong, purposeful brands delivering on the promise of health and happiness for dogs and cats.”

US-based Whitebridge manufactures Tiki Pets®, Dogswell®, Grizzly®, Cloud Star®, Buddy Biscuits®, Pet Botanics®, Crazy Dog® and Petite Cuisine®. Agras manufactures the brands Schesir®, Stuzzy® and ADOC®. In merging, the companies will expand their reach, capabilities and product offerings.

“I strongly believe that the two teams working together will give the new company the unique opportunity to build a truly global and unique petfood business, and I will provide my full support during the transition,” said Pietro Molteni, former chief executive officer of Agras.

The new Whitebridge Pet Brands will continue to operate out of offices in St. Louis, Mo., and Genoa, Italy, and will also now operate Agras’ dry pet food plant in Neive, Italy.

As well as a dry food plant, the merger will also provide Whitebridge with manufacturing capabilities to support a larger variety of brands, and an increased global presence that was previously unavailable to the company given constraints on imports and exports.

“This merger is in the spirit of our philosophy of ‘Better Together,’” Amice added. “It allows us to accelerate our development with more innovation made available to more markets. We will continue to bring to our retailers relevant and differentiated solutions to help them maximize the potential of their stores.”

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