Being Eaten By the Big Guys

Hey Everyone!

Cary forwarded me this article last week and I'm just now getting a chance to post it.

"Procter & Gamble, the immensely huge consumer-products company that snapped up Iams/Eukanuba years ago and put the former specialty brand on grocery-store shelves for the first time, has picked up another pet-food company.

From Reuters:  The acquisition [of Natura] may surprise some industry watchers who had wondered in the past if pet food was a business P&G would exit. The business, a relatively small one for P&G, has not performed as well as other parts of the consumer product maker’s $79 billion portfolio.

Natura, based in Davis, Calif., sells products under the Innova, Evo, California Natural, Healthwise, Mother Nature and Karma brands in some specialty pet stores and through veterinarians, mainly in the United States and Canada."

I find this news unsettling, not so much because I care what P&G does or how it might affect my portfolio (although I did happen to get this news on the day the stock market took a record hit, partly due to a shocking drop in P&G stock...)  But rather because I'm concerned about what will happen to Innova, Evo, California Natural and other Natura lines.  The thing is that these are very well respected foods.  High quality foods that I trust, as do many other educated pet owners.  What I want to know is, what happens when this big company starts imposing their rules on this "small" company's product?  In my experience, large corporations, such as P&G put the bottom line above all else.  Which means that they will soon start squeezing anywhere they can.  Maybe they change to a foreign supplier.  Maybe they change to a cheaper ingredient.  Maybe the just reformulate altogether.  In the end, the result is the same.  You end up with a good name that's no longer a good food.  I hope I'm wrong.  I hope P&G keeps Innova just the way it is.  But, if I was feeding Innova, I think I'd start looking for another food.