Nestlé Purina PetCare
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| Ralston Purina Company | |
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| Type | Public |
|---|---|
| Founded |  St. Louis, Missouri (1894) (as Purina Mills) |
| Headquarters | St. Louis, Missouri, United States |
| Key people | William H. Danforth, Founder |
| Area served | Worldwide |
| Industry | Pet food |
| Products | Dog food, cat food, animal health products |
| Owner | Nestlé S.A. |
| Slogan | Your Pet, Our Passion |
| Website | www.purina.com |
The Ralston Purina Company (today's Nestlé Purina PetCare), based in St. Louis, Missouri, was a major American corporation best known for its production and marketing of animal feeds. Since 2002, Nestlé's Friskies business combined in a friendly merger with Ralston Purina. Nestlé Purina PetCare is a division of Swiss based Nestlé company. It traced its roots back to 1894, when founder William H. Danforth began producing feed for various farm animals under the name Purina Mills. Later in 1902 he merged with Health guru and visionary Webster Edgerly, founder of Ralstonism, who was at the time producing breakfast cereals to form the "Ralston-Purina Company". In the 1950's there was a controversy over the name as people asked if the "Ralston" part was associated with the Ralston society from half a century earlier that had, at the time, a bad reputation. The company denied any association.
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[edit] Nestlé's takeover of Ralston Purina in the beginning of 2001
European multinational corporation Nestlé S.A. and U.S. Ralston Purina Company announced in January 2001 that they had entered into a definitive merger agreement. Under the agreement, Nestlé acquired all of the outstanding shares of Ralston Purina (NYSE: RAL) for US$ 33.50 per share in cash. The offer represented a premium of 36 percent over the closing price on Friday, January 12, 2001. The transaction had an enterprise value of US$ 10.3 billion ($ 10.0 billion equity plus $ 1.2 billion of net debt, minus $ 0.9 billion of financial investments). Both Corporations saw this major strategic transaction as the ideal way to benefit from their combined know-how, complementary strengths and international presence in the growing pet-care market. Ever since it acquired the Friskies business with Carnation in 1985, Nestlé has considered pet-care as a strategic growth area and it has repeatedly strengthened it through acquisitions (Alpo 1994, Spillers 1998, and Cargill Argentina 2000).
[edit] Current operations
[edit] Ralston
The "Ralston" name was more associated with food for humans; soda crackers and a farina cereal, among other products, were marketed under this name. Ralston Purina also for many years produced the familiar line of "Chex" and Cookie Crisp cold breakfast cereals. The animal and human food businesses were seemingly only tenuously related. In 1994, the human food business was spun off to Ralcorp Holdings, operating as Ralston Foods, which then sold its branded products to General Mills. Ralston Foods manufactures many store brand foods to grocery outlets across the United States and sold under the retailer's private label.
[edit] Purina
The Purina name was principally associated with the animal feed business, which included feed for livestock and household pets. The predominant brand for each animal was generally referred to as "Chow"; hence there was "Purina Horse Chow", "Purina Dog Chow", "Purina Cat Chow", and even "Purina Monkey Chow," "Purina Rabbit Chow" and "Purina Pig Chow".
The animal feed business became the subject of a takeover bid by Swiss-based Nestlé, whose "Friskies" brand was the other leading brand of pet food in the U.S. This bid was eventually accepted in 2001. Several brands of pet food (e.g., "Meow Mix") had to be divested separately to meet antitrust concerns. Purina brands are now made and marketed by a division of Nestlé (Nestlé Purina PetCare) which is still headquartered in St. Louis. The work of developing manufactured diets for pets involves animal testing, thereby introducing controversy.
Purina Mills, Inc., the U.S. animal feed business that was sold by Ralston Purina Company in 1986, was purchased by Koch Industries in 1998, but a U.S. Bankruptcy Court cancelled out all equity held by Koch in order to maintain the company's viability. Purina Mills LLC is now owned by Land O'Lakes.
While primarily a pet food company, Ralston Purina also made some other pet-related products, such as Tidy Cats brand cat litter. Also, Purina has honoured several Canadian animals every year since 1968 in their Animal Hall of Fame. The latest inductees included a police service dog who "rushed and subdued an armed robber."
[edit] Pet food Recall
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This section documents a current event. Information may change rapidly as the event progresses. |
Nestlé Purina PetCare Company announced on March 30, 2007 a precautionary measure to voluntarily withdraw its 5.3 ounce Mighty Dog brand pouch products that were produced by Menu Foods, Inc. from December 3, 2006 through March 14, 2007.[1] This withdrawal was in response to the recall initiated earlier by Menu Foods, a contract manufacturer that does limited business with Purina as well as with other pet food manufacturers. At that time, only Mighty Dog 5.3 ounce pouch products are being withdrawn by Nestlé Purina; however, on March 31, 2007, the recall was expanded to "all sizes and varieties of its Alpo Prime Cuts in Gravy wet dog food with specific date codes."[2]
To date, nearly 60 million containers of pet food sold under 100 different brand labels have been recalled.[3]
[edit] Acquisitions and diversifications
In 1977, Ralston Purina acquired Missouri Arena Corporation and the St. Louis Blues National Hockey League franchise. The franchise was later sold in the 1980s. During the company's ownership of the team, they changed the name of the St. Louis Arena to the Checkerdome, reflecting the Ralston Purina logo.
Ralston Purina purchased the Eveready Battery Company in 1986, owner of the Eveready and Energizer brands. The company was spun off in 2000.
Ralston Purina purchased Continental Baking Company "aka" Wonder Bread & Hostess Cake from ITT In 1984. Ralston did spin off Continental Baking Company and then was bought out by Interstate Brands Corporation "IBC" headquarters in Kansas City, MO.
[edit] Brands
Well-known brands include:
- Alpo
- Beggin' Strips
- Purina One
- Purina Pro Plan
- Various 'chows'
- Purina Dog Chow
- Purina Puppy Chow
- Purina Cat Chow
- Purina Kitten Chow
- Friskies
- Fancy Feast (canned wet cat food)
- Tender Vittles
- Beneful
[edit] Logo
The company was famed for its "checkerboard" trademark.
Its headquarters was called Checkerboard Square. At one point it owned an interest in the St. Louis Blues National Hockey League team; during this period the arena they then used was referred to as the "Checkerdome".
As a boy, William Danforth, one of the founders of Ralston Purina, worked in his father's store in Charleston, Missouri. Every Saturday he watched the Brown brood come to town, all clad in red and white checks. It was convenient for Mrs. Brown to make the entire family's clothes from the same bolt of checkerboard cloth.
In 1902, Danforth was looking for a distinctive dress for his products, and naturally remembered Mrs. Brown. His reasoning was sound, for the red and white checkerboard identified his products just as boldly as it had the Brown family.
The checkerboard logo then evolved into personal development concept Danforth put forth in his book I Dare You (ISBN 0-7661-2786-9) in which he used a checkerboard to explain it. Danforth proposed that four key components in life need to be in balance. In the illustration, "Physical" was on the left, "Mental" on top, "Social" on right and "Religious" on the bottom. To be healthy, you needed the four squares to stay in balance and one area was not to develop at expense of the other.[1]. The concept became intertwined with the company in 1921 when it began selling feed that was pressed in cubes called "checkers."
[edit] Trivia
- A conscious nod to the checkered logo is made in Ridley Scott's Alien (1979), where a version of it can be seen on the space ship's bulkheads and airlocks, implying that the human cargo are "Alien Chow".
- During the 2001 anthrax attacks, government scientists described the brown granule material contained in an anthrax letter as looking like Purina Dog Chow.
- In 2003, the punk rock band Propagandhi released a song entitled "Purina Hall Of Fame", which appeared on the Fat Wreck Chords charity record, Liberation: Songs to Benefit PETA.
- John Danforth, former United States Senator (R-MO) and American ambassador to the United Nations, is the grandson of William Danforth.
[edit] References
- ^ Alpo® Brand Prime Cuts In Gravy Canned Dog Food Voluntary Nationwide Recall
- ^ Contaminated pet food recall once again expands
- ^ Contaminated pet food recall once again expands
