Natural Dog Company

The company

Natural Dog Company, founded in 2006 and based in North Carolina, is a leading pet wellness brand known for healing balms, skin and coat support, and supplement products for dogs. The brand sells direct-to-consumer and through retail partners across North America.

The problem

By spring 2024, Natural Dog Company was preparing for a strategic transaction and had just lost its internal finance lead. The team needed a senior finance operation that could plug in immediately, run the full finance stack from books through to board pack, and stand up next to Big-4 advisors during diligence, all on a compressed timeline.

Most fractional CFO firms can deliver one of those things. Natural Dog Company needed all of them at once.

What we did

Eightx took over the finance function in April 2024 and ran it right up to close. The work covered:

• Fractional CFO leadership, weekly EOS Level-10 cadence with the leadership team, 25+ L10s on tape across the engagement, plus VTO refresh and target-setting
• Bookkeeping operation in NetSuite, working alongside the integration partner
• Multi-sprint financial model build, 8+ documented sprint weeks covering SKU-level COGS, hiring plan, trade spend, departmental budgets, and contribution margin
• Monthly board pack delivered throughout the engagement, plus an iterated KPI tracker and daily cash log
• 2023 audit support for the external auditor, the audit that deal readiness required
• M&A diligence support alongside the buy-side advisor, gathering 3+ years of NetSuite purchase transaction data, vendor and customer contracts, provisions detail, and the operational documentation a Morgan Stanley-backed acquirer needs to underwrite the deal
• AR collections across major retail accounts, AP, and sales tax operations (including a mid-engagement migration between providers)

The deal was announced 25 April 2025.

What changed

• A strategic acquisition by an MSCP-backed buyer. Natural Dog Company became the first acquisition for FoodScience since it became a Morgan Stanley Capital Partners portfolio company in November 2024, quoted in the announcement as reflecting MSCP's commitment to investing behind “category-defining brands with loyal followings, differentiated products, and strong growth potential.”
• Deal-ready finance in 11 months. From a finance team in transition to closing diligence with external audit + Big-4 buy-side support, on the timeline the deal required.
• A full-stack finance partner, not a single seat. Eightx ran CFO + bookkeeping + FP&A + audit support + M&A diligence in parallel, the breadth a sale process actually needs.
• Clean handoff at close. Eightx ran the finance function right up to close and handed over a fully operational system to FoodScience for the post-close integration.