verification . please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources . unsourced material may be challenged and removed . march 2010 learn how and when to remove this template message pedigree petfoods industry animal food manufacturing founded 1957 number of employees c 1 200 parent mars incorporated website pedigree petfoods pedigree petfoods is a subsidiary of the american group mars incorporated specializing in pet food with factories in england at melton mowbray and birstall leeds ; and offices at mclean virginia . contents 1 history 1.1 manchester 1.2 melton mowbray 1.3 mars inc. 2 marketing 3 the pedigree foundation 4 see also 5 references 6 external links history edit manchester edit 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 . this company took low quality meat and canned it as dog food branded as chappie . 1 melton mowbray edit 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 . in 1953 the company operated seven days a week twenty four hours a day on a shift system . 1 a continuous sterilisation process was introduced instead of batch processing . new dog food brands pal and lassie were introduced during the 1950s . 2 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 . 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 . citation needed towards the late 1980s and in the 1990s the company came under much more competition from what became nestl purina petcare . a new 22m pouch production line opened in november 2007 . the company is a member of the pet food manufacturers association . mars inc. edit pedigree is now a subsidiary of mars incorporated . the english division of mars inc. has been called masterfoods since january 2002 until it was split into 4 separate entities in 2007 mars petcare uk mars complementary petcare uk mars chocolate uk and mars food uk . marketing edit selection of pedigree dog food the company makes the market leaders pedigree dog food and whiskas cat food as well as kitekat cat food and pal dog food . the slogan used for many years for pedigree dog food is top breeders recommend it with a current slogan of we re for dogs . for whiskas the old slogan was 16 out of 20 owners say their cat prefers it and for pal it is 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 original slogan for the pedigree brand was recommended by top breeders . it was replaced in 2007 by dogs rule . the pedigree foundation edit in the united states the pedigree foundation is a philanthropic organization dedicated to helping dogs in need find loving 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 . 3 according to the foundation s faq site it has raised more than 4 million to date 4 and 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 care . 5 see also edit whiskas mars incorporated references edit a b hudson kenneth industrial history from the air cambridge university press 1984 mars petcare mars united kingdom retrieved 17 oct 2011 pedigree foundation . pedigree foundation faq . pedigree foundation 2008 annual report pdf . external links edit pedigree dog foods pedigree petfoods uk mars uk pedigree main site v t e mars incorporated mars family franklin clarence mars ethel v. mars forrest mars sr. forrest mars jr. john franklyn mars jacqueline mars victoria b. mars brands products for human consumption chocolate 3 musketeers a. korkunov balisto bounty celebrations dove ethel m fling flyte kudos m azing m & m s maltesers mars milky way revels snickers topic tracker treets twix galaxy galaxy milk chocolate galaxy caramel galaxy counters galaxy crispy galaxy hazelnut galaxy fruit & nut galaxy minstrels galaxy ripple galaxy senzi galaxy amicelli galaxy bubbles galaxy jewels galaxy promises galaxy honeycomb crisp galaxy cookie crumble galaxy orange & shortcake other foods combos dolmio masterfoods munch promite seeds of change uncle ben s drink cocoavia flavia klix wrigley gum and confections chewing gum with sugar alert big red doublemint juicy fruit wrigley s spearmint winterfresh sugarfree 5 airwaves eclipse ice excel extra freedent orbit surpass bubblegum with sugar alpine big league chew bubble tape hubba bubba sugarfree ouch mint and candy altoids eclipse life savers lockets skittles starburst tunes products for non human consumption pet care advance aquarium pharmaceuticals buckeye nutrition cesar chappie eukanuba exelpet greenies iams medi cal my dog natura nutro pedigree pill pockets royal canin schmackos seramis sheba spillers teasers techni cal whiskas winergy wisdom panel mx mixed breed dna test services pet care banfield pet hospital retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title pedigree petfoods & oldid 728405992 categories animal food manufacturerspet food brandscat food brandsdog food brandsmars brandshidden categories articles needing additional references from march 2010all articles needing additional referencesall articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from october 2011 navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a bookdownload 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