I’d say very common actually, especially for the small niche providers.
It’s not uncommon for small brands like that to be bought/sold/consolidated over the years and not all owners treat their customers well. It’s also possible something happened to the owner and they’ve had a medical issue or passed away. Sadly just recently we took over a gentleman’s company who had a terminal illness but everything was communicated to the customers. On the flip side of that, we’ve bought companies that have had sub-brands that had no idea the original owners were long gone.