Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire
From chocolate to canned pet food – Forrest E. Mars made the legendary move to diversification in 1935, three years after establishing the MARS bar.
He purchased the ailing Chappel Brothers in Slough, sensing an opportunity for ready-prepared dog food to succeed in the UK as it had in the USA. He quickly turned the business around and in a few years CHAPPIE sales had increased five-fold. By 1939 there was a flourishing market for pet food in the UK. KIT-E-KAT, the tinned cat food, was introduced in 1950.
In 1951 he moved the business, still called Chappie Ltd, to Melton Mowbray, more famous for its pork pies, and celebrated a turnover of £1m in its first year there. The site – an old wool mill – had room for expansion, there was plenty of labour and access to good distribution.
The 1950s brought great changes. Plant capacity was increased when 24-hour, seven day shift working came in and the first ‘chunk’ food, called PAL, was introduced. LASSIE was also produced. A huge new cold store was added in the late 50s, to house blocks of frozen meat and fish.
Now manufacturing a range of pet foods, the company changed its name to Petfoods in 1956. TRILL, the budgerigar seed food joined the range in 1958, WHISKAS was launched in 1959, CHUM and MINX hit the shelves in 1960 and BUSTER and FROLIC a year later.
1969 saw the first appearance of Petfoods at Crufts, with PEDIGREE CHUM – and the first TV advertisement for the partnership was shown. Petfoods was a founder member of the Pet Food Manufacturers’ Association when it was formed in 1970. The company became known as Pedigree Petfoods in 1972.
As a Mars company, Pedigree Petfoods was always at the forefront of technological innovation. In 1978 the company commissioned a new line at its Melton Mowbray site, believed to be the most advanced canning line of its kind in the world. The first two-piece can was developed in 1979.
The greatest innovation came in 1998 with the introduction of single-serve pouches of WHISKAS and KIT-E-KAT, taking the market by storm. Multi-variety pouch production started in 2008.
Pedigree Petfoods became active in its local community in the early 1980s. Among other activities which supported local business and education, the company supported the young enterprise company Status Co. Chum, a young black Labrador was one of the first dogs placed under the Hearing Dogs for the Deaf scheme.
Over the years, the business won many British Safety Council awards and was one of five companies in the country chosen for inclusion in the Department of Trade booklet launching the National Quality campaign. 1985 saw the company’s 50th anniversary, at which an area of reclaimed land called Priory Gardens was donated to the people of Melton Mowbray. There was another celebration in 2001 to mark half a century of production at Melton.
As one of the UK’s leading pet food manufacturers, Mars Petcare is committed to promoting responsible pet ownership and supporting veterinary organisations and animal welfare charities. The pet food factory, employing around 280 associates, continues to benefit from investment and innovative development, allowing it to respond to changing market demands in both can and pouch.
Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition
Mars Petcare started a formal study of pet nutrition in the early 1950s and by 1965 the Nutrition Research Unit was founded with nutritionists, vets and animal carers. It was housed in the Corn House, next to Melton site, until 1973 when it moved to an old stud farm at nearby Waltham-on-the-Wolds.
An Aqua Centre was established at Waltham in the mid 70s to study fish nutrition and help production development for fish foods at Thomas’s.
Hundreds of dogs, cats, birds and fish were housed and bred in the Waltham Centre’s tailor made home-from-home animal accommodation. Nutritionists and vets there became acknowledged experts in animal nutrition, health, care and behaviour and went on to provide the research and science behind all Mars pet care brands worldwide. The WALTHAM logo was introduced on all brands in 1991 to recognise their scientific formulation.
Waltham on the Wolds, Leicestershire
A new national office for Petcare was opened at Waltham on the Wolds in 1981, next to the Waltham Centre for Pet Nutrition.
The new buildings were created to blend with their rural surroundings. The central facilities housed Petfoods customer services, accounts, marketing, personnel, corporate affairs, consumer care, logistics and the management team.
The site was formerly a private estate and its attractive location has always been a source of great pride. The Woodland Project, completed in 2006, planted 40,000 native broadleaf trees and shrubs to benefit wildlife.
Peterborough
A tailor-made factory was opened at Peterborough in 1974 to manufacture semi-moist petfood products. The £45 million plant employed 150 people.
Manufacture of all dry lines moved from Melton to Peterborough in 1981. In 2005 the warehouse was expanded to allow export of parts of the PEDIGREE and WHISKAS ranges to cover much of Europe.
In 2005 a state-of-the-art grinding and dry powder mixing mill was built to give a finer milling size and investments continue today.
Birstall, Leeds
Mars bought Thomas’s of Halifax, producers of pet accessories, in 1968 but the history of the business goes much further back.
Thomas’s of Halifax started life in 1877, when Joe Thomas and Harry Gledhill started breeding and selling birds. Gradually they expanded into manufacture of all sorts of food and equipment for birds. After the war, new lines such as bird cages, baths and toys were being made.
By 1963 the brand name PETCRAFT better described the company’s activities. Four years later the business was acquired by the Mars group, which was keen to expand from pet food into broader pet care. Mars had also bought Ellsons of Nantwich a year earlier and the two new businesses were combined in a new unit at Shelf, north of Halifax, in 1969. Here, the company’s first pet food, a flake fish food was manufactured and the now famous AQUARIAN range was born.
Still called Thomas’s, the firm returned to Halifax in larger premises in 1976 and developed into a full pet food manufacturing unit, with products still marketed as PETCRAFT. BISCROK, the bone-shaped biscuit, arrived in 1978 and began to sell well to the UK supermarkets. It was followed in 1981 by MARROBONE and then SMACKOS and KITBITS. Non-food items such as leads, toys and collars continued to be sold.
The lines were so successful that the Halifax premises were bursting at the seams and Mars invested in a new custom-built factory at Oakwell Way, Birstall, near Leeds. All the associates plus 1000 product lines, moved to the new unit.
The company developed into a specialist snacks and treats business in the 90s, with dog and cat treats re-branded under PEDIGREE and WHISKAS. Renamed Thomas’s Europe, the business was part of the new Mars European Petcare organisation, eventually becoming known as Mars Complementary Petcare. Birstall is the European Head Office for Complementary Petcare
