Who Owns Your Pet Food Company?

Pet food isn’t a famously transparent industry. It can be tricky to navigate the adverts, packaging, and marketing to get a sense of what you’re buying. For example, most of the major brands that dominate shelves are owned by giant foreign companies.

Sometimes those overseas companies will choose to manufacture locally, due to Australia’s access to high-quality raw ingredients. That’s great. It creates jobs and cuts down the time it takes between food being processed and bought by you. 

Now, the quality of your food depends on much more than where it’s made and who owns it. But we’re dedicated to helping our readers understand the confusing world of internationally and Australian owned dog food, so enjoy this crash course in the dizzying world big business. 

The Big Three Brands

The pet food industry is largely dominated by three foreign-owned groups: MARS (North American), Nestle (Swiss), and The Real Pet Food Company (Chinese-led). 

Between them, they own pretty much every pet food brand you’ve ever heard of. But, here is a complete breakdown.

Mars, a private US company, owns:
Advance
Pedigree
Greenies
Chum
IAMS
My Dog
Nature’s Table
Nutro
Optimum
Royal Canin
Schmackos
Wiska’s
Dine
Eukanuba
Good-O and more

Nestle Purina, a public Swiss company, owns:
Beyond
Lucky Dog
Beneful
Supercoat
Felix
Friskies
Proplan
One
Fancy Feast and more

The Real Pet Food Co, a majority Chinese-led Asian investment consortium, owns:
Billy & Margot
Nature’s Gift
Natures’ Goodness
Farmers Market
Ivory Coat
VIP
Doctor B’s BARF
Tucker Time
Fussy Cat
Love’m

Other Foreign-Owned Brands

There are a handful of other foreign owned companies that you’re probably very familiar with who aren’t quite as massive.

New Zealand owned: Black Hawk, ZiwiPeak, and K9 Naturals.
US owned: Hill’s Science Diet & Wellness
UK owned: Applaws

Australian Owned Dog Food Brands

That probably feels like every brand you’ve ever heard of so far, but there are a bunch of local dog food brands in the market. Again, just a reminder none of this is commenting on quality of food.
Scratch (our fav, obviously)
Meals for Mutts
SavourLife
BioPet
VeganPet
CopRice
Australian Dog Food Company
Prime 100
Stay Loyal
Vet’s All Natural and Balanced Life
Lifewise

So there you have it! Now, just a reminder, none of this is commenting on the quality of the food. A good and a bad product can be manufactured in any country.

To understand more about what you feed your dogs, catch up on:

How the Pet Food Industry Got Hooked on Bad Chicken 

Understanding the Invisible Economics of Pet Food

Can Dogs Be Vegan?

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