Sad News About Ukele - sold Equine Products to Smartpak

[LCDR]

SmartPak is actually somewhere in the middle of the corporate chain. They became part of Henry Schein, then spun off into the animal heath company Covetrus, which was acquired by a private equity firm with about ownership stakes in about 90 other businesses.

So if you imagine SmartPak as a separate little independent company, it isn’t. There’s no telling where the SmartPak name and chain of command will eventually end up in the future corporate world.

I started following this acquisition, spinoffs, mergers and sales saga when Schein acquired a surgical instrument company that I bought from.

[JB]

@Larbear

Does anyone know if there’s a product or there that’s similar to Uckele Equi Sweet? Looks like it’s out of stock at Smartpak

I found it here https://www.cheshirehorse.com/p/uckele-equi-sweet-/KW70557.html

The Smart Pack site shows the pint out of stock, but the gallon is available

[Larbear]

Thanks JB, I had checked before and it appeared to be out of stock so when I checked again last night I thought it was still out of stock for both sizes. Lol that’s what I get for looking at it on my phone late at night!

[JB]

phones late at night are a dangerous thing

[TWH_Girl]

Whoa- super weird SP call today. Usually I call from my cell and my account comes up and they verify my address and say hi Stephanie and get down to business. This person didn’t know a thing. I was calling because I couldn’t add the “Winter24” code to my new supplement I added to an existing SP. She says I have to go through the check out process. Um, no…the new supplement just gets added and you don’t checkout. She asked a gazillion questions and puts me on hold. Comes back and asks what code. 🫡 Scratching my head, I said winter24. You know- the current promo code. The one that’s the banner on your website and the one you sent emails out regarding?
She puts me on hold again. Comes back to say that code only works for PhytoQuench!!! 🫨
Omg I said I don’t think a promo code running at the top of the website is only good for one supplement. I said I’m looking at 8 plus pages of supplements it applies to including the one I am calling about. I had to just hang up because idk what is going on but no one seems to know what they are doing anymore and not just at SP.
I may have missed it- but did they get bought again? Anything else change?

[Pico_Banana]

I added a new supplement during that sale and the same thing happened to me. I confess it wasn’t worth my time to call to get it fixed.

[fivestrideline]

@TWH_Girl

She says I have to go through the check out process

You kinda do - the checkout process is 99% done before you get to the part that lets you add promo and discount codes. The discount doesn’t show up when you first add things to the cart. I used the promo code and it worked!

That said, it wouldn’t be the first weird glitch.

Poor customer support person probably on their first day flying solo. Hopefully that’s a one-off and not a sign that they’re outsourcing the phone lines to generic CS companies.

[TWH_Girl]

I am unable to check out as my current order for this horse is processing so the supplement won’t be added until next shipment anyhow.
Usually I have called and they have adjusted it for me without issue or asking me what code.

CS Companies- this sounds familiar. I thought I recalled yet another sale. And it really sucks about Uckele. They had some great supplements you could not find anywhere. Big fan of GUT pellets.

[fivestrideline]

Ugh yeah usually they can fix anything over the phone.

I get my GUT pellets from smartpak. I hope they keep them in their lineup as-is

[candyappy]

@Simkie

I could be wrong, but I don’t think Smartpak is killing off the Uckele brand entirely? It would be a dumb move, there’s great recognition. They may just be discontinuing some specific products that they feel are too similar to their own high volume high margin products…

Why would they buy another company just to discontinue all the products? I still see plenty of Uckele products at my TSC. I was thinking they would keep the good selling items. Maybe absorb the lesser into their own product line?

[StormyDay]

@candyappy

@Simkie

I could be wrong, but I don’t think Smartpak is killing off the Uckele brand entirely? It would be a dumb move, there’s great recognition. They may just be discontinuing some specific products that they feel are too similar to their own high volume high margin products…

Why would they buy another company just to discontinue all the products? I still see plenty of Uckele products at my TSC. I was thinking they would keep the good selling items. Maybe absorb the lesser into their own product line?

This is pretty common in the corporate world; you buy the competition and then phase them out so you have a larger market share.
However if I was Smartpak I would be trying to purchase platinum performance, not Ukele.
I assumed they were purchasing to have access to the vendors of the raw ingredients going into Ukele products.

[candyappy]

@StormyDay

This is pretty common in the corporate world; you buy the competition and then phase them out so you have a larger market share.

All it does it pi&& many people off so they stay away from the company that ruined a good thing

[StormyDay]

@candyappy

@StormyDay

This is pretty common in the corporate world; you buy the competition and then phase them out so you have a larger market share.

All it does it pi&& many people off so they stay away from the company that ruined a good thing

I agree! I can’t name business names due to NDAS but there was one a family member worked for that got bought up by a similar company. They tried to phase it out and it angered the customers so much that they decided to keep them both, but the customers ended up boycotting both and they had record low sales in both for several years afterwards.

[fjordmom]

…“I may have missed it- but did they get bought again? Anything else change?”…

The answer is Yes. At least their retail outlet and product line has been bought by Greenhawk out of Canada. SP employees were given severance at the end of January and supposedly new retail outlet will open in March. (according to a source who worked for SP). I’m not sure what is happening with the supplement line.

I was never a SP fan, but loved Uckele. So sad to see them gone. I stocked up at the end of the summer and even at that point their order processing was a bit of a mess. Wonder if they had already transitioned to SP processing. I’ll have to look for new sources as my supplies run down.

[TWH_Girl]

Thanks. This was what I recall reading about. Oh wow, if today’s call is any indication of how things are going to go- it’s not going to be good. I did not know SP employees got a severance. I seriously feel like the entire world needs the biggest Chiro adjustment ever. One good crack to get us back on track. Everything feels off kilter.

[IPEsq]

Because SP already had some supplements that were competitive. I do trademark work for a lot of companies, some doing human supplements. One of my clients bought a bunch of supplement brands over the past few years, and several products were renamed or phased out because they already had something similar under another brand or they just decided to make changes. I don’t know exactly what the products and marketing people do, but this is common.

[Jackie_amp_Starlette]

I was getting Magnesium Oxide from Ukele. Smartpak seems to have discontinued it, but does not have it in their brand. They have either other brands with additives like alfalfa, or their brand which only says it’s magnesium.

Mad Barn has a fancy-schmancy version also for $$$$. I ended up getting bulk from Amazon.

[Alterwho]

@Jackie_amp_Starlette

I was getting Magnesium Oxide from Ukele. Smartpak seems to have discontinued it, but does not have it in their brand. They have either other brands with additives like alfalfa, or their brand which only says it’s magnesium.

Mad Barn has a fancy-schmancy version also for $$$$. I ended up getting bulk from Amazon.

I don’t know what you’re paying on Amazon but have you looked at HorseTech?

https://horsetech.com/equine-supplements/searchcategory/magnesium

[Ghazzu]

You can get a 50 # bag of MgOx at the feed store for about $60.

[pony_baloney]

My Best Horse sells bulk supplements. I used to buy a few from them for my previous horse. And I think Dr. Eleanor Kellon is connected with it somehow, as well as Ukele.

All Supplements