If a major customer or supplier is carrying the kind of balance-sheet stress Wellness Pet faced in 2025, would we see it coming before it hit our production schedule?

Not unless you're watching more than the relationship itself. Ask your sales and purchasing teams to flag public debt ratings or refinancing news on key counterparties, the same way United Petfood is now exposed to Wellness Pet's balance sheet at two separate plants.

Which of our freight lanes carry fuel-indexed surcharge clauses that will escalate as diesel climbs toward the $5.55 forecast for this quarter?

Pull your carrier contracts this week and check the surcharge index and reset frequency before the next rate adjustment hits. Indiana diesel prices have already passed the national fourth quarter forecast.

Do we have enough lubricant and motor oil on hand if Iran's base-oil supply disruption outlasts the crude price spike?

Check current stock levels against your maintenance schedule now, since base oil supply chains typically take longer to recover than crude or diesel prices do.

Manufacturing News TEG Daily

October 13, 2026 · St. Joseph

Indiana Diesel Prices Hit $6.71 as United Petfood Doubles Down on Mishawaka

Indiana diesel prices hit $6.71 a gallon as United Petfood invests $24M in Arkansas and Mishawaka. What Indiana manufacturers need to track this week.

Daniel BurkePublished every day

Indiana diesel prices hit $6.71 a gallon in September, up 77% from $3.79 a year ago, and that increase lands directly in freight line items on every Indiana plant's budget before the fourth quarter closes out. In St. Joseph County, Belgium-based United Petfood closed a $24.22 million purchase of a third North American plant in Decatur, Arkansas on October 5, while continuing a $5.4 million warehouse rebuild at its Mishawaka flagship.

01St. Joseph

United Petfood's $24.2 Million Arkansas Deal Keeps Mishawaka as the Flagship

United Petfood, the Ghent, Belgium-based private-label pet food manufacturer, closed on a 98,063-square-foot dry pet food plant in Decatur, Arkansas on October 5, paying $24.22 million for the facility and 46 acres along Arkansas Highway 59. The seller, Burlington, Massachusetts-based Wellness Pet Co., also signed a long-term supply agreement with United Petfood as part of the sale, making United Petfood a contract manufacturer for Wellness Pet at two of its three North American plants. That arrangement carries more downside than the headline expansion suggests.

Impact: The real story isn't expansion, it's asset churn: Wellness Pet paid $26.5 million for this Decatur plant in 2022 and sold it four years later for $24.22 million, a loss that lines up with Wellness's May 2025 'selective default' debt exchange and S&P downgrade before a $100 million refinancing pushed maturities to 2029. That makes United Petfood a captive contract manufacturer for a financially stressed customer at two of its three North American plants, a concentration risk that would surface fast if Wellness's balance sheet re-stresses before 2029: meanwhile Mishawaka, with its continued $5.4 million capex, remains the proven execution anchor while Decatur (previously run by Simmons Foods for Walmart's Ol' Roy line, then Wellness) has changed hands three times in 16 years without hitting scale.
Watch: Completion of the $5.4 million Mishawaka warehouse/distribution rebuild and any update on United Petfood's production ramp timeline at the newly closed Decatur site.
For the huddle: If a major customer like Wellness Pet is also our landlord/supply partner at two separate plants, how exposed are we to that single counterparty's balance sheet, and do we have a plan if that relationship deteriorates again before 2029?

SourcesBelgian pet food company buys Decatur plant for $24.2 million (ktlo.com)

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02Statewide

Indiana Diesel Prices Climb Toward $7 as Hormuz Shipping Collapses

Indiana's average on-road diesel price reached $6.71 a gallon in September, a 77% jump from $3.79 a year earlier, driven by renewed U.S.-Iran strikes that have again shut down shipping through the Strait of Hormuz. National gasoline climbed 16 cents to $4.02 a gallon this week as crude oil settled near $85 a barrel, and vessel traffic through the strait, which normally carries about a fifth of the world's oil, has dropped to roughly 4 ships a day against a pre-crisis baseline of 85. The federal government's September forecast puts national diesel averaging $5.55 a gallon in the fourth quarter, a number Indiana diesel prices have already passed.

Impact: The gasoline headline understates the real manufacturing exposure: EIA's September Short-Term Energy Outlook forecasts diesel averaging $5.55/gallon in Q4 2026, meaning freight surcharges on inbound materials and outbound shipments will keep climbing even if crude eases, because diesel and crude don't move in lockstep. There's also a less-reported second front: Iran is a major producer of base oils used in motor lubricants, and that supply chain has a longer reconstitution timeline than crude, so plant maintenance lubricant costs could stay elevated well after any ceasefire eases pump prices. With Strait of Hormuz transits down to roughly 4 vessels a day in early October against a pre-crisis baseline of 85, this isn't a seasonal fall price dip, it's a geopolitical supply floor that overrides the usual refinery-maintenance pricing pattern Indiana operators are used to planning around.
Watch: EIA's next Short-Term Energy Outlook update and daily Strait of Hormuz vessel-transit counts, which will signal whether the $5.55/gallon Q4 diesel forecast holds or worsens.
For the huddle: Do our freight contracts carry fuel-indexed surcharge clauses that will auto-escalate as diesel climbs toward $5.55 this quarter, and have we checked our lubricant/motor oil stock levels given Iran's role in base-oil supply?

SourcesToday’s Gas Prices By State: Average Price Of A Gallon Exceeds $4 (info.oregon.aaa.com)

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