Pedigree Petfoods is a subsidiary of the American group

Mars, Incorporated Mars, Incorporated is an American multinational manufacturer of confectionery, pet food, and other food products and a provider of animal care services, with US$40 billion in annual sales in 2021. Mars was ranked as the fourth-largest pri ...

specializing in

pet food Pet food is animal feed intended for consumption by pets. Typically sold in pet stores and supermarkets, it is usually specific to the type of animal, such as dog food or cat food. Most meat used for animals is a byproduct of the human food ind ...

, with factories in England at

Melton Mowbray Melton Mowbray () is a town in Leicestershire, England, north-east of Leicester, and south-east of Nottingham. It lies on the River Eye, known below Melton as the Wreake. The town had a population 27,670 in 2019. The town is sometimes promo ...

and Birstall, Leeds; and offices at

McLean, Virginia McLean ( ) is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Fairfax County in Northern Virginia. McLean is home to many diplomats, military, members of Congress, and high-ranking government officials partially due to its proxi ...

History

Manchester

In 1934, Mars Limited, a division of the large American confectionery company, that had been based in Slough since 1932, acquired Chappel Brothers in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. This company took low-quality meat and canned it as dog food, branded as "Chappie".Hudson, Kenneth: Industrial history from the air, Cambridge University Press 1984

Melton Mowbray

In 1951, annual sales reached £1m, and the company moved to Melton Mowbray, using a former sewing-thread mill previously used by

Patons and Baldwins Patons and Baldwins was a leading United Kingdom, British manufacturer of knitting yarn. It was an original constituent of the FT 30 index of leading companies on the London Stock Exchange. Early history The business began as two separate compan ...

. In 1953, the company operated seven days a week, 24 hours a day on a shift system. A continuous sterilisation process was introduced instead of batch processing. New dog food brands Pal and Lassie were introduced during the 1950s.Mars Petcare
Mars United Kingdom (retrieved 17 Oct 2011) Due to making more than the Chappie product, the company name changed to Petfoods Ltd in 1956. In 1972, this became Pedigree Petfoods Ltd. A new factory on Shrewsbury Avenue in Woodston, Peterborough opened in October 1974 which originally produced semi-moist products such as Bounce. In March 1975, it became the Pedigree Petfoods division of Mars Ltd. During the 1970s, around 2,500 workers were at Melton and 200 at Peterborough and produced around 400,000 tonnes of animal food a year and virtually doubled production. The raw materials came from the Oakleigh Manufacturing company in Ascot. Around 3 million cans were used per day at the Melton plant; cans were delivered every 30 minutes, to limit storage space, from the Metal Box company (which became

Novar plc Novar plc (formerly Caradon plc) was an international building supplies group based in the United Kingdom. Novar was formed in 1921 as Metal Box Company from the coming together of several businesses and trades, including canning and printing. ...

). At this time, Whiskas was the company's biggest product by sales closely followed by Pedigree Chum, although more in volume was sold of Pedigree Chum. Whiskas sold four times as much as Kitekat, although only half as much was spent on advertising Kitekat as Whiskas. Towards the late 1980s and in the 1990s, the company came under much more competition from what became

Nestlé Purina PetCare Nestlé Purina Petcare (), or simply Purina, is an American subsidiary of the Swiss corporation Nestlé, based in St. Louis, Missouri. It produces and markets pet food, treats, cat and dog litter. Some of its pet food brands include Purina Pro P ...

. A new £22m pouch production line opened in November 2007. The company is a member of the Pet Food Manufacturers' Association. A second new additional pouch production line began construction in 2020, opening 2021.

Mars Inc.

In 1968, Mars took over Kal Kan Foods of

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

. In 1988, Kal Kan Foods changed the name of its dog food to Pedigree, the name Mars used to sell dog food outside the United States. The next year, Mars applied their worldwide branding of

Whiskas Whiskas (formerly known as Kal Kan) is a brand of cat food sold internationally. It is owned by the American company Mars, Incorporated. It is available either as small meaty pieces in sauce, gravy or jelly packaged in tins, foil trays or pouch ...

to their cat food branding. In 1998, Kal Kan was the top-selling dog food brand but was going downhill. In the United States, its Pedigree Select brand became Cesar, used in Europe and Asia. Pedigree is now a subsidiary of

. The English division of Mars Inc. has been called Masterfoods since January 2002, until it was split into four separate entities in 2007: Mars Petcare UK, Mars Complementary Petcare UK, Mars Chocolate UK and Mars Food UK.

Marketing

The company makes the market leaders Pedigree (dog food) and

(cat food), as well as Pal (dog food) and Kit-E-Kat (cat food). The slogan used for many years for Pedigree dog food was "Top breeders recommend it because it's solid nourishment" with a current slogan of "We're for dogs". For Whiskas, the old slogan was "Eight out of 10 owners say their cat prefers it" and for Pal, it was "Prolongs Active Life". In Australia, the Pal dog food brand was progressively replaced by the Pedigree logo during the 1980s-2000s. In the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territori ...

, the original slogan for the Pedigree brand was "Recommended by top breeders". It was replaced in 2007 by "Dogs rule".

The Pedigree Foundation

In the United States, The Pedigree Foundation is a philanthropic organization dedicated to helping shelter dogs find permanent homes. The foundation, created in 2008, provides grants to 501(c)(3) dog shelters and breed rescue organizations, and help dog lovers adopt, volunteer, and make donations. According to the foundation's FAQ site, it has raised more than $4 million to date. In 2008, it distributed more than $1.1 million in grant money to more than 500 shelters and breed rescues. Use of awarded grant money by qualified recipients is virtually unrestricted, but is most often used for shelter improvements or

veterinary Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutri ...

care.

References

External links

Pedigree Petfoods UK

Mars UK

Pedigree main site

Pedigree India
{{Authority control Cat food brands Dog food brands Mars brands Companies based in McLean, Virginia 1968 mergers and acquisitions