On Thursday, the court overseeing bankruptcy proceedings for Independent Pet Partners approved the sale of 24 Natural Pawz and Kriser’s stores to NP Acquisition LLC, owned by Biff Picone, Nadine Joli-Coeur, and Dallas-based JDH Investment Management LLC. Picone and Joli-Coeur are the husband-and-wife team who founded Natural Pawz in 2005 and sold to IPP in 2018.
“We built Natural Pawz from one store to almost 20,” Picone said. “We put so much time and effort into it that we didn’t want to see the stores get liquidated and cease to exist. We could not live with ourselves if 140 Natural Paws employees lost their jobs and some of our stores were taken over by larger entities. They wouldn’t have the same hometown feel.”
Picone and Joli-Coeur assume ownership on March 1. They will oversee the chain, with JDH Investment Management acting as a silent partner.
“We’re very excited and very touched by all of the customer and employee love for Natural Pawz. We’re humbled to bring it back,” Joli-Coeur said.
Financial terms of the sale agreement were not disclosed, but Picone did say that they are required to rebrand all of the Kriser’s locations as Natural Pawz within 60 days. Among other short-terms changes the couple shared are plans to add grooming to stores without it, to reintroduce a frequent feeder program, and Joli-Coeur said, “Go back to what we used to do, get the right products for our customers.”
Read more of our coverage of the IPP bankruptcy.