Who Owns Your Favorite Pet Food Company?
July 12th, 2011
So many consumers (including me) get so focused on pet food brands and pet food ingredients that we often don’t stop to think about who really owns and/or runs the companies that make the pet food we buy. Trust me on this … the packaging, the marketing, the philanthropy … aims right at our hearts and our passions.
But, just in case you want to go on a scavenger hunt, here are my best tips for unraveling your pet food company’s ownership.
Pet Food Companies: The big players
- Mars
- Nestle
- Proctor & Gamble (P&G)
- Hill’s
- Del Monte
To find out if these big consumer product companies own your fav pet food brands, look on their MAIN websites for a link to “brands.” For example, I didn’t realize until I went looking that Mars owns Royal Canin, Pedigree, and Whiskas.
Pet Food Companies: The smaller players
You can also work your way backward from the BRAND you like … to the company who owns it by starting at the brand’s own website. Often you will find links to company ownership WAY down at the bottom of the page in TINY print in the “footer.” Look for links such as:
- Investor relations (because there you can find out under what name the company trades on the stock exchange)
- Names of other companies (for example, you can go from Purina to Nestle Purina to Nestle)
- Trademark references (which often say that various brand trademarks are the property of XXX company)
- Site maps (sometimes you have to look at the site map, which is often a page only search engines really notice)
- News links (often you’ll find announcements that a company has been bought out, or if you look at the very bottom of any good press release … there is usually a little biographical paragraph about the company, including any owners or subsidiaries)
Pet Food Companies: Trail Goes Cold
If you dig around and find only references to the one BRAND or one COMPANY, then the chances are good that it’s a solo entity. To double-check that assumption, you can always call or email the company and ask about ownership.
In some cases, brands that were once under one umbrella get broken apart in some acquisition deal. For example, the dog food I now feed … got “left behind” in such a deal. That’s fine by me, actually. The company still operates as its own entity, and I still buy the food from a small, locally-owned feed store in my rural community.
Do you know who owns your favorite pet food company? Do you think it matters? If so, why?
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Tags: cat food, dog food, multinational corporations, pet food, pet food company, pet food manufacturers
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One Response to “Who Owns Your Favorite Pet Food Company?”
A professional writer based in Colorado, Roxanne Hawn doesn't just love dogs. She deep-down requires them in life. Something inside her genes, perhaps? That's why it's such a joy to write about all things canine. Roxanne began writing about pets in 1995, when she worked for the American Animal Hospital Association and later for the American Humane Association. During this period in her career, Roxanne served on the board of directors for the National Council on Pet Population Study and Policy (a coalition of animal welfare groups). Roxanne also volunteered for many years at an animal shelter, where she witnessed firsthand what happens when the human-animal bond breaks or never forms.
Yes, I do think it matters. So much so, that when Natura sold out we switched brands!