P&G Selling Iams, Eukanuba, Natura
P&G expanded its holistic and natural pet food footprint in 2010 when the company bought Natura’s Innova, Evo, California Natural, Healthwise, Mother Nature and Karma brands. (Karma has since been discontinued.) The purchase price was not announced, but analysts pegged it at $450 million to $500 million.
Iams, Eukanuba and Natura Pet Products will pass from one conglomerate to another in a $2.9 billion transaction that expands Mars Inc.’s pet business and guts Procter & Gamble’s.
The all-cash deal, announced today, adds mass-market pet food brands Iams and Eukanuba to a Mars collection that includes Royal Canin, Pedigree, Whiskas, Nutro and the Banfield pet hospital chain. The sale is expected to close later this year.
P&G noted that its pet brands captured about 5 percent of the North American market in 2013 but that sales were hurt by a salmonella scare that forced the recall of many Natura dry pet foods and treats.