AlphaPet Ventures acquires JR Pet Products from the UK

Munich — Alpha­Pet Ventures, Europe’s leading digi­tal brand plat­form for premium pet food, has acqui­red JR Pet Products, the leading UK premium brand for natu­ral chews and dog snacks. This acqui­si­tion is another mile­stone in AlphaPet’s successful buy-and-build stra­tegy. — The commer­cial law firm LUTZ | ABEL provi­ded compre­hen­sive legal advice to Alpha­Pet Ventures GmbH on the recent equity finan­cing in the course of the acqui­si­tion of JR Pet Products LTD. The acqui­si­tion was finan­ced through a combi­na­tion of equity and debt. Patria Invest­ments, an exis­ting LP of capi­ton, acted as lead inves­tor, supported by Venture Stars and exis­ting Alpha­Pet share­hol­ders. Debt finan­cing was provi­ded by CVC, under­li­ning their contin­ued support of AlphaPet’s buy-and-build stra­tegy. Alpha­Pet Ventures (Alpha­Pet) digi­ti­zes the pet market and successfully deve­lops and distri­bu­tes premium brands across Europe. Alpha­Pet was foun­ded by Marco Hier­ling and Stefan Pfannmöl­ler (photo © Alpha­Pet). The port­fo­lio includes estab­lished brands such as Wolfs­blut, Wildes Land, Arden Grange and Herrmann’s Manu­fak­tur. AlphaPet’s multi-chan­­nel stra­tegy combi­nes strong digi­tal direct sales (D2C) with a custo­­mer-orien­­ted approach via its own plat­forms and part­ner­ships with leading retail part­ners in the B2B segment. JR Pet Products (JR) was foun­ded in 2012 by Jona­than and Rebecca Davies, backed by a seed invest­ment from close family friend Stephen Tandy. In recent years, JR has become the UK’s leading premium brand of natu­ral dog snacks. The range includes high-quality, natu­ral chews and snacks, which are sold via the company’s own D2C store and selec­ted B2B part­ners. The focus on the best raw mate­ri­als and quality has secu­red JR a loyal and rapidly growing custo­mer base. Marco Hier­ling, foun­der and CEO of Alpha­Pet: “Jona­than and Rebecca have built a fanta­stic brand with JR that fits perfectly with our port­fo­lio. JR ideally comple­ments our commit­ment to healthy and high quality pet food and adds a leading brand of dog snacks to our offe­ring.” “With Alpha­Pet, JR gains access to exten­sive resour­ces and an estab­lished Euro­pean distri­bu­tion network, which opens up great growth poten­tial for the brand,” explains Frit­jof Franz, Part­ner at capi­ton. Jona­than and Rebecca Davies, foun­ders and mana­ging direc­tors of JR: “The part­ner­ship with Alpha­Pet marks an exci­ting new chap­ter for JR. Toge­ther we aim to build on the strength of our brand and work with our trus­ted suppli­ers and custo­mers to achieve our growth targets.” — The entire JR team will remain on board and Jona­than and Rebecca Davies will conti­nue as Mana­ging Direc­tors. The acqui­si­tion of JR Pet Products is AlphaPet’s fourth acqui­si­tion since 2020 and a further step towards streng­thening its posi­tion as the leading Euro­pean plat­form for premium pet food and snacks. 

Mark Nicol­son, Part­ner and Head of Primary Invest­ments at Patria, said: “We are deligh­ted to faci­li­tate the next chap­ter of value crea­tion for Alpha­Pet and look forward with confi­dence to conti­nuing our successful part­ner­ship with AlphaPet’s excep­tio­nal manage­ment team and capi­ton, one of the highest performing mana­gers in the Euro­pean private equity market.”

Alpha­Pet consultant:
Ashfords (Legal UK), LutzA­bel (Legal Germany), Deloitte (Finan­cial and Tax), Allen & Overy (Finan­cing Legal) and Sonn­tag & Part­ner (Tax & Structure). 

Advi­sors to JR:
Quan­tuma Advi­sory (lead advi­sor) and Thom­son Snell & Pass­more (legal).

About Alpha­Pet Ventures

Alpha­Pet Ventures is Europe’s leading tech­­no­­logy-driven brand plat­form for premium pet food. By combi­ning multi-chan­­nel distri­bu­tion, digi­tal brand buil­ding and end-to-end tech­no­logy solu­ti­ons, Alpha­Pet is trans­forming the pet market. The company excels in direct-to-consu­­mer (D2C) and busi­­ness-to-busi­­ness (B2B) distri­bu­tion, lever­aging its exper­tise in tech­no­logy, busi­ness intel­li­gence, digi­tal marke­ting and logi­stics. Through a combi­na­tion of orga­nic growth and a successful buy-and-build stra­tegy, Alpha­Pet has built a steadily growing port­fo­lio of leading Euro­pean premium brands. Guided by the vision: “Healthy food for every pet”, AlphaPet’s subsi­dia­ries and brands conti­nue to drive the premi­umiza­tion and digi­ta­liza­tion of the pet market. 

About JR Pet Products

JR was foun­ded in 2012 by Jona­than and Rebecca Davies with a seed invest­ment from Stephen Tandy. In recent years, JR has become a leading company in the premium dog market. The company places great empha­sis on quality and inno­va­tion and has built a successful multi-chan­­nel distri­bu­tion with a strong network of B2B part­ners and direct-to-consu­­mer (D2C) access. JR will remain commit­ted to the UK pet retail market. 

About capi­ton

capi­ton is an inde­pen­dent, owner-mana­­ged private equity company with assets under manage­ment of over 1.6 billion euros. The current port­fo­lio compri­ses 19 medium-sized compa­nies and supports manage­ment buyouts and growth finan­cing for estab­lished companies. 

About Patria Investments

Patria is a leading alter­na­tive invest­ment firm with over 35 years of expe­ri­ence and specia­liza­tion in key resi­li­ent sectors. With more than $44 billion in assets under manage­ment and a global foot­print, Patria Invest­ments stri­ves to deli­ver consis­tent returns in attrac­tive, long-term invest­ment oppor­tu­ni­ties while crea­ting sustainable value for society. 

About Reimann Investors

Reimann Inves­tors is a family office and a group of compa­nies repre­sen­ting members of the Reimann entre­pre­neu­rial family. The company focu­ses on highly liquid capi­tal market invest­ments and direct invest­ments in fast-growing digi­tal compa­nies in the SaaS and FinTech sectors. 

About Venture Stars

Venture Stars is a Munich-based venture capi­tal firm specia­li­zing in early-stage invest­ments in inno­va­tive digi­tal D2C and B2B busi­ness models. The company was foun­ded by Martin Junker, Florian Calm­bach and Stefan Pfannmöl­ler and mana­ges three funds with invest­ments between 0.5 and 5 million euros per port­fo­lio company. As a former company buil­der, Venture Stars offers support that goes beyond pure capi­tal, inclu­ding stra­te­gic know-how, networ­king and opera­tio­nal advice in areas such as orga­niza­tio­nal deve­lo­p­ment and finan­cing. Venture Stars co-foun­­ded ePet­World, which later became Alpha­Pet through the merger with pets Premium. 

About LUTZ | ABEL

With over 100 lawy­ers and offices in Munich, Hamburg, Stutt­gart and Berlin, the commer­cial law firm LUTZ | ABEL advi­ses on all aspects of commer­cial law. www.lutzabel.com.