Pet industry M&A activity accelerates across food, wellness, and supply

Pet industry dealmaking has picked up again this winter, with activity spanning pet food, supplements, manufacturing, distribution, and services. Among the clearest examples are AlphaPet Ventures’ March 2026 acquisition of Belgian premium pet food brand Cpro Food and its April 2026 acquisition of German supplement brand Tierliebhaber, giving the Munich-based company six acquisitions since 2020 and expanding its reach in premium nutrition and preventive wellness. United Petfood also moved to expand manufacturing capacity, including a first Canadian production site in Quebec and a newly announced Turkey facility deal with Lider Petfood. In services and distribution, the backdrop includes Blackstone’s completed take-private of Rover in February 2024 and the newly announced February 18, 2026 plan to merge Covetrus with MWI Animal Health, a deal aimed at combining distribution scale with veterinary technology and practice services. (petfoodindustry.com)

Why it matters: For veterinary professionals, this wave of consolidation matters because it’s touching the parts of the market clinics interact with every day: supplier networks, product availability, preventive care offerings, digital platforms, and private-label or premium nutrition pipelines. AlphaPet’s move into supplements and veterinary-adjacent wellness, and the proposed Covetrus-MWI combination in particular, suggest larger platforms are betting on integrated ecosystems that connect products, logistics, software, and client-facing services. That could eventually affect pricing leverage, formulary access, distribution efficiency, and the competitive landscape for practices and industry partners. (petfoodindustry.com)

What to watch: Watch for regulatory review and integration plans around Covetrus-MWI, plus whether more nutrition and wellness brands become acquisition targets through mid-2026. (investor.amerisourcebergen.com)