J.M. Smucker sells off a private label asset

The J.M. Smucker Co. has made a business move in the private label space. The company has announced it has sold its private label dry pet food business, along with its manufacturing hub.

Diamond Pet Foods will purchase the assets for roughly $33 million. The transaction will only include J.M. Smucker's dry food business, not the company’s wet food or branded pet products, such as Milk-Bone

"This divestiture enables us to focus investments and resources on areas of our pet food and pet snacks business positioned for growth and profitability, including driving category growth in dog snacks, building upon our momentum in cat food — particularly with Meow Mix, and stabilizing Nutrish dog food by growing consumer demand," said Rob Ferguson, senior vice president and general manager of pet food and pet snacks at The J.M. Smucker Co. 

Smucker updated its full-year fiscal 2022 guidance to reflect the removal of divested net sales for the remainder of the fiscal year. Full-year net sales are now expected to range from down 1% compared to the prior year. J.M. Smucker also recently divested its assets of Crisco and Natural Balance. The divested business generated net sales of approximately $95 million for the fiscal year ended April 30, 2021.