St. Louis-based Whitebridge Pet Brands merges with Italy-based Agras Pet Foods – St. Louis Business Journal – The Business Journals

Whitebridge Pet Brands, a St. Louis-based manufacturer of pet foods, treats and supplements, has merged with an Italian pet food brand that’s a sibling under its new European owner.
Whitebridge, whose products include Tiki Pets brand cat and dog food, has completed a merger with Agras Pet Foods, the Genoa, Italy-based maker of Schesir brand pet food and treats for cats and dogs for the European market.
The combined company will do business as Whitebridge Pet Brands, with Olivier Amice, Whitebridge’s current CEO, as chief executive.
Whitebridge was acquired in August 2021 by Belgium-based investment firm NXMH, which had bought a 60% stake in Agras in 2017, according to trade journal Petfood Industry News.
Both businesses now are fully owned by NXMH, according to a Monday press release.
Whitebridge will continue to operate from both its St. Louis and Genoa offices, according to the release. Whitebridge also has manufacturing operations in Joplin, Missouri; Woodinville, Washington; and Copenhagen, Denmark. Agras has manufacturing operations in Neive, Italy.
“Our goal has always been to build a global natural health nutrition company. 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,” Amice said in the press release. “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.”
Amice added that the merger will allow the company “to accelerate our development with more innovation made available to more markets.”
Pietro Molteni, former owner and CEO of Agras, said in a statement, “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.”
In addition to the Tiki Pets brand, Whitebridge Pet Brands manufactures cat and dog food, treats, health aids and related products under brands Dogswell, Grizzly, Cloud Star, Buddy Biscuits, Pet Botanics, Crazy Dog and Petite Cuisine.
Agras, in addition to the Schesir brand, manufactures and markets the Stuzzy and ADOC brands of pet food, distributed in Europe.
Whitebridge had revenue between $100 million and $150 million in 2020, Ann Hudson, Whitebridge’s vice president of marketing, previously told the Business Journal.
Agras Pet Foods had 2020 revenue of about 100 million euros, or about $108 million, according to Petfood Industry News.
Family-owned NXMH has assets under management of 4 billion euros (about $4.7 billion).
© 2022 American City Business Journals. All rights reserved. Use of and/or registration on any portion of this site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement (updated 1/1/21) and Privacy Policy and Cookie Statement (updated 7/20/21). The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of American City Business Journals.

source