Nestle Purina Pet Care to Sell Decatur, Alabama Pet Food Plant

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Researched by Industrialinfo.com (Industrial Information Resources, Incorporated; Houston, Texas). Nestle Purina Pet Care (Glasgow, UK) is selling their Friskies pet foods plant in Decatur, Alabama to The Meow Mix Company (Secaucus, New Jersey) for an undisclosed amount.

The last day of operation under the Nestle Purina name was August 2, 2002 and The Meow Mix Company, a division of privately held J.W. Childs Associates (Boston, Mass), will offer positions to the plant's roughly 110 employees with the new company.

The company will operate two production lines at the new plant mainly to produce dry cat foods. They are currently setting up business operations in the Decatur area.

This is the third owner of the plant since it opened in 1974 under the Jim Dandy company name. Alpo took over the plant in the 1980's and changed the name to Friskies Pet Care in the mid 1990's.

The Meow Mix Company is one of many holdings in J.W. Childs portfolio. They also own Hartz Mountain Corporation, Bass Pro Shops, Nutrasweet, Empire Kosher Poultry, and Jillian's Entertainment Corporation just to name a few.