Vital Pet Products is restructuring following a review of its business, and Director Sunny Sharma has given his personal reassurance there will be no redundancies as a direct result of the change. He also said there should be no disruption to supply for customers.

It had been the intention of the Directors to consolidate Vital Pet Products and L. Batley Pet Products, which have continued to operate as individual units within Vital. The new business will be called the Vital Pet Group and its registered office will be in Sheffield.

Vital has contacted its suppliers to let them know they were transitioning purchases from Vital Pet Products to L. Batley with a view to bringing the consolidated business under the Vital Pet Group banner.

To complete this restructure the Vital Pet Products part of the business will be divested and cease to trade from purchasing or sales functions. The company will go forwards as Vital Pet Group.

Sunny Sharma (left) has been reassuring stakeholders that this is not an indication that the Vital Pet Group is insolvent.

“The Vital Pet Group will continue to benefit from significant and ongoing investment and will be stronger as a result of this change,” he said.

The company has already benefited from £1.45 million of investment in the last 18 months.

He explained that there was no alternative to making this change. “In recent months information was unearthed that was not disclosed to the Directors when the company was purchased.

"There were undisclosed liabilities that extended beyond the core wholesale business and agreements that had the potential to turn Vital into a toxic company and could have eventually caused it to collapse.

"Having exhausted all other options, bringing forward the formation of the new company was the only solution.”

He continued: “It’s such a pity that we have had to yet again cope with another historical hurdle when the last six months have seen an increase in trading performance as a result of the changes we have made.

"The restructure allows the new Vital Pet Group to move forwards with a clean break and without potentially damaging liabilities in the background.”

Vital Pet Group now intends to proceed full steam ahead with future plans and Sunny has confirmed that the core company is in great shape and well positioned for growth.