The livestock, nutrition and health product company officially announced its decision to become United Animal Health, Inc. last week. The rebrand is set to include a new name, logo, appearance and to modernize the company’s focus.
The decision is being announced at this time to correspond with the start of the new year, said David Cain, marketing director with the company. However, it has been in consideration since about May 2017.
“We’ve been working through the details for several months,” he told FeedNavigator. “We are effective with the change now. Our next step is to continue to notify the industries we serve of this change.”
The name change also is corresponding to a series of efforts on the feed production side, and research into microbial products, he said.
Avoiding confusion
The move is also expected to help the company differentiate itself within the industry, and to provide distance from other companies that also have JBS in their titles.
“We have never had any relationship or connection with any other JBS company, but felt it appropriate to make that abundantly clear by dropping JBS from our name,” said Trent Torrance, chief operating officer with United Animal Health.
That position was echoed by Doug Webel, company president and CEO, who said that the change helps specify that the company is not affiliated with any other company that also uses the same set of initials.
“We are more focused now, than ever, on building our nutrition business, adding facilities and people, and expanding into different geographies,” he added.
In the US, another well-known JBS is the international animal product purveyor JBS, USA. The company is a processor of beef with cattle feedlots in the US and processing facilities in the US and Canada. Its parent company is Brazilian giant, JBS SA, which has been mired in the recent corruption scandal in that country.
United’s nutrition and feed focus
United Animal Health is taking steps to expand its milling capabilities in region and product line, said Cain.
“We are currently expanding our milling capabilities, allowing us to move into new geographic areas,” he said. “In addition, we have modernized our existing milling facilities, renovated our research farms and we have acquired new companies that have expanded our portfolio to include beef cattle – serving swine, dairy, poultry, beef cattle and show feeds.”
United Animal Health also is planning to support ongoing research with microbial products, he said.
The company started work with direct fed microbials several years ago and has a product line with items for swine and poultry, along with other products, it reported.
“Moreover, we continue to lead exploration into microbial solutions,” said Cain. In 2017, the company enlarged its fermentation tanks, which allow it to select, ferment and accomplish large-scale production of microbial products, he added.
“What you eat has as much to do with your health as almost any other factor,” he said. “Therefore, we’ve always viewed nutrition as health – you are what you eat – our innovation, research and development will continue to focus on the health of a producer’s herd, including blended products, nursery feeds, microbial solutions and enzymes.”
“We also have expanded into feed management technologies, such as Prairie Systems, that support animal health by tracking individual animals,” he added.