Pet Food Processing - January 2025 - 18
PLANT PROFILE
MUENSTER
milling 2.0
An investment in a new freeze-drying facility and human capital
has taken this legacy pet food company to the next level.
By Kimberlie Clyma | kclyma@sosland.com
While most of
Muenster's production
goes toward
private label and
co-manufacture
customers, the company
still produces
some SKUs under
its own brand.
Muenster Milling
M
Muenster Milling is not a new name in the pet food industry.
In fact, the company has been owned and operated
by the Felderhoff family since 1932. The family business
started out as a flour milling company in Muenster,
Texas, and later converted to a producer of livestock
feed. In 1989, the business pivoted once again, when
the third generation of the Felderhoff family added an
extruder to its production equipment, and Muenster
Milling's pet food business was born.
After fourth generation Felderhoffs - brothers Mitch
and Chad - joined the ranks in 2007 and 2013, respectively,
the company furthered its pet food evolution with
the addition of a 17,000-square-foot freeze-dry processing
plant in Muenster in 2018.
With a growing demand throughout the industry for
more freeze-dried pet food and a fragmented supply
chain to service the space, the Felderhoffs had dreams
of expanding the company's freeze-drying capabilities
beyond what they could offer out of the Muenster, Texas,
facility. The quest to fulfill this dream led the family to
pursue additional capital resulting in the eventual acquisition
by Kainos Capital in August 2021.
" The Felderhoffs built an incredible pet food company
over four generations...and they scaled their business
from what started out as a kibble business into the
freeze dry arena, " said Jim Holdrieth, president and chief
executive officer of Muenster Milling. " But like many
family-owned businesses, they lacked the capital to fully
address the opportunity to become a
leading manufacturer of freeze-dried
pet food in the industry.
" Kainos came in to provide the
capital to take the business to the next
level, " Holdrieth explained. " First and
foremost, they provided the funds to
build a vertically integrated, highly
automated, low-cost facility that we
now operate out of Denton, Texas. "
Soon after the acquisition was inked,
Muenster was able to pursue the build
of its new freeze-drying facility. After a
number of site considerations, the operations
team chose a 65,000-squarefoot
open warehouse in Denton. As
an empty shell, the company was able
to design the facility essentially from
a blank slate, which allowed for stateof-the-art
equipment throughout and
18 PET FOOD PROCESSING | Jan-Feb 2025 | www.petfoodprocessing.net
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Pet Food Processing - January 2025
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pet Food Processing - January 2025
Pet Food Processing - January 2025 - Intro
Pet Food Processing - January 2025 - FC1
Pet Food Processing - January 2025 - FC2
Pet Food Processing - January 2025 - 1
Pet Food Processing - January 2025 - 2
Pet Food Processing - January 2025 - 3
Pet Food Processing - January 2025 - 4
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