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

Daniel BurkePublished every day

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. Wellness Pet paid $26.5 million for the Decatur plant in 2022 and sold it for less four years later, a transaction that follows the company's May 2025 debt exchange that S&P rated a selective default, before a $100 million refinancing pushed its maturities out to 2029. Mishawaka remains United Petfood's proven production site. The company is still spending $5.4 million to demolish and rebuild a warehouse and distribution facility at its 1011 W. 11th Street campus, under the direction of subsidiary VP Elodie Fleury.

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?

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.

Sources

Belgian pet food company buys Decatur plant for $24.2 million · ktlo.com

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