"Catterton has been a wonderful financial and business thought partner for us," says Deborah Ellinger, president of Old Mother Hubbard. She goes on to say, "It has enabled us to make the investments, which were needed over the past few years, to fuel our growth and to fulfill our mission of providing uncompromising nutrition for pets. We couldn't have made all of the changes we have made without their backing and strong marketing orientation. Wonderful people, too!"
Who are they?
While working on the Old Mother Hubbard profile (p. 18) in this issue, I first learned about Catterton Partners. I was curious, so I checked their website (www.cattertonpartners.com). I learned Catterton is a large private equity company that focuses on the "middle market consumer" that is driven by four primary elements:
Investment criteria
The Catterton website notes that companies that meet its investment criteria share a number of common features:
What I learned
According to its website, Catterton is able to add value to each investment through: strategic planning; recruiting key members of management; fostering growth; enhancing operating performance; identifying and executing synergistic mergers and acquisitions; and realizing equity value.
It is clear there's a lot going on in this industry: many layers, many players and many opportunities. It's a great time to be in the petfood industry!
Corrections
Authors of a palatability article in our December issue prefer the title "Effects of phosphoric acid on cat kibble palatability." They also emphasize that phosphoric acid can enhance palatability when used with a liquid palatability enhancer (PE) alone, but will significantly decrease palatability when a powdered PE is used. So, it is important to spray phosphoric acid as far from the dry PE application as possible in the coating sequence, and before the fat is applied.
In our January issue, in the article "Industry leaders talk," Angele Thompson's first name was misspelled and her location was wrong. Her contact information is: Thompson PetTech, 45 Laurel Dr., New Providence, NJ 07974, Tel: 1.908.898.0055, E-mail: tpettec@cs.com.
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