| Type | Subsidiary |
|---|---|
| Industry | animal feeds |
| Founded | St. Louis, Missouri 1894 |
| Headquarters | Gray Summit, Missouri, United States |
| Area served | United States |
| Key people | William H. Danforth, Founder |
| Products | livestock food, animal health products |
| Owner(s) | Land O’ Lakes |
| Website | www.purinamills.com |
Purina Mills, LLC, is the animal feeds unit of Land O’ Lakes. It was previously part of Ralston Purina, but the animal feeds portion was sold in 1986.
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Purina traces its roots back to 1894, when founder William H. Danforth began producing feed for various farm animals under the name Purina Mills. The predominant brand for each animal was generally referred to as “Chow”; hence there was “Purina Horse Chow”, “Purina Dog Chow”, “Purina Cat Chow”, “Purina Rabbit Chow”, “Purina Pig Chow”, and even “Purina Monkey Chow”. Later, in 1902, he merged with university professor Webster Edgerly, founder of Ralstonism, who was at the time producing breakfast cereals, to form the “Ralston-Purina Company”.[1]
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 to maintain the company’s viability. Purina Mills LLC is now owned by Land O’ Lakes. Purina pet food is now made and marketed by a division of Nestlé (Nestlé Purina PetCare), which is still headquartered in St. Louis.
Purina Mills licenses the Purina and Chow Brands from the owner of the trademarks, Nestlé Purina PetCare Company, for the United States and its territories (including Puerto Rico).
Ralston Purina was famed for its “checkerboard” trademark. The inspiration for the Ralston Purina logo came from a family from founder William Danforth’s childhood who dressed in checkerboard cloth.[2] The checkerboard trademark, intended to make their burlap bags of feed stand out from competitors, was introduced in 1904.[3] Ralston Purina’s headquarters was called Checkerboard Square. At one point, Ralston Purina 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”.
The checkerboard logo then evolved into a personal development concept Danforth put forth in his book I Dare You, in which he proposed that four key components in life ("Physical," "Mental," "Social," and "Religious") need to be in balance, and one area was not to develop at expense of the other.[4] The concept became intertwined with the company in 1921, when it began selling feed that was pressed in cubes called “checkers”.[5]
In Canada, the Purina brand for animal feeds is used by an unrelated company, Agribrands Purina Canada, Inc., a division of Cargill, under license from Nestlé Purina PetCare Company.[6]