Swedish-based Petbuddy Group has made its second acquisition of a UK company in 2022 following a deal to buy British premium pet food brand Little BigPaw. The group had acquired MediPaws, a producer of natural pet supplements in February.

Little Big Paw co-founders David Alton and Jim Weston, who will continuing with the new owners, said: “Petbuddy Group came to us with the ambition to accelerate growth by launching more products and entering new markets. That felt like an exciting journey to be part of. Together we will be able to exploit synergies within distribution, product development and logistics. In addition, it will allow simpler access of Little BigPaw products to the EU.”

Petbuddy, whose other brands include Buddy, WAP Dog Care and Nutrolin, is backed by strong Swedish investors.

The company’s CEO Alex Baumann said: “We are delighted to welcome David and Jim to PBG and our exciting journey ahead. They have built a modern and highly appreciated brand that is sold to over 45 markets worldwide. In addition, they offer over 50 years of combined pet food experience that will open many doors for us as a group.

“PBG’s goal is to become the leading group of premium and sustainable pet food companies in Europe within five years. An ambitious M&A strategy together with strong organic growth is the recipe.”

He added: “We have great investors backing us on our journey. This is our fourth acquisition in 18 months and many of our investors have been part of every deal. We’re humble to build PBG together with great investors.

“We’re building a vertically integrated group of pet food brands; from factory to consumer. Synergies can be found within distribution, production, ecommerce/tech,

as well as within logistics.”