Alabama-based pet food and treat producer Sunshine Mills is boosting its manufacturing capabilities with the purchase of Red Collar Pet Foods’ production facility in Joplin, Missouri.

Neither company has revealed how much the plant was sold for.

Acquiring the facility will provide Sunshine Mills with extra capacity to produce baked and cold-formed pet treats.

Being in a central US location, the Joplin site also enables more efficient distribution of Sunshine Mills' products nationwide, it said. The facility holds over 200,000 square feet of production and warehouse space.

round 130 employees work at the plant and have experience in manufacturing baked biscuits and cold-formed treats for dogs and cats.

Sunshine Mills is expected to take over operations at the Joplin site with immediate effect.

Greg Wolking, president and CEO at Red Collar Pet Foods said: “We are thrilled to see the knowledgeable and engaged team of associates at Joplin join the like-minded family at Sunshine Mills”.

“We now look forward to crossing paths with them as our industry colleagues while Red Collar continues to serve customers and key retailers.”

Red Collar Pet Foods is a private-label pet food and treat manufacturer based in Franklin, Tennessee. The company was acquired by private equity group Abor Investments in 2018 from Mars Petcare.

The Joplin facility is one of several Red Collar plants that have been acquired in recent years. Earlier this year, Nestlé bought the company’s factory in Miami, Oklahoma.

In August 2022, Colgate-Palmolive’s Hill’s Pet Nutrition also acquired three Red Collar plants for $700m.

Abor Investments has been contacted for comment.