HOME BASED PET FOOD OPPORTUNITY: Iams pet food business to shrink again in Dayton region

Procter & Gamble Co.’s desire to move its research and development operations closer to the businesses they serve will cost Lewisburg most of its Iams and Eukanuba home based pet food opportunity, as the company moves them to Mason, Cincinnati and other states.

The changes, involving almost 190 Lewisburg jobs, will begin in 2010 and end by June 2012. They were among a larger group of relocations that P&G announced Monday, Nov. 9, involving nearly 700 employees in Ohio, Connecticut and Massachusetts.

Lewisburg is in northeast Preble County. Mason is in southern Warren County.

P&G employees in Lewisburg were summoned to meetings Monday and informed of the upcoming changes, a spokesman said.

Already this year, P&G has closed its Iams-Eukanuba pet food office headquarters in Vandalia, moving its 240 jobs to Mason and selling the Vandalia property.

P&G ultimately may consider selling its pet food business entirely in order to focus on product categories where it sees greater potential to increase sales, industry analysts said last week.