Large Pet Food Companies and Sustainable Practices

Mars Petcare is open about their dedication to sustainable practices. In 2010, Mars said they would only purchase fish from fisheries/fish farms that were certified as sustainable by a third party. Mars also said it would no longer use wild caught fish and would rely on fish byproducts or farmed fish. This prevents pet food sources from competing with human food sources. In the United States, Mars receives its fish products from sources approved by the Monterey Bay Aquarium’s Seafood Watch program.

Nestlé Purina produced a report documenting a reduction in energy and water use at several plants. Purina also reports “a traceability program addresses sustainability risk and opportunities and focuses on issues such as deforestation, overfishing, human rights, child labor, water scarcity and animal welfare.”

J.M. Smucker (Big Heart Pet Brands) is reported to regularly review its sustainability initiatives. Vice President of Corporate Communications, Maribeth Burns said, “While we continually review our sustainability initiatives throughout the Company, we have not yet formalized our focus on the pet food industry at this time.”

One challenge in the pet industry is that owners are seeking food for their pets that more closely resembles what humans eat. Global Sustainability Director for Mars Petcare, Isabelle Alvoet said, “We are going to have to educate our consumers. It’s not easy.”

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Nestlé Petcare Half Year Results

Compared to last year Nestlé has had lower revenue growth in the first half of 2015. According to Nestlé, “The results of the first half allow us to reconfirm our outlook for the full year: we aim to achieve organic growth of around 5% with improvements in margins and underlying earnings per share in constant currencies, and capital efficiency.”

• Sales of CHF 42.8 billion (Convert to USD), 4.5% organic growth, 1.7% real internal growth
• Trading operating profit margin 15.0%, up 20 basis points in constant currencies
• Underlying earnings per share up 7.3% in constant currencies

Petcare in North America showed good growth, in spite of the negative impact from the Beneful case. Among the drivers were Fancy Feast cat food, the Pro Plan platform for dog food, and cat litter. Petcare continued to be a growth driver for Latin America and will benefit from new production capacity in Argentina and Mexico.

For Petcare, the half year sales were $5.465 billion CHF with an organic growth of 4.9%. Trading operating profit margins were 21.0% with an increase of 110bps from the first half of 2014.

READ THE 2015 HALF YEAR PRESS RELEASE

Mars, Incorporated Announces Changes to Leadership Team

Seasoned Leaders Promoted in Petcare, Food, Sales and Marketing

MCLEAN, VA (September 25, 2014) Mars, Incorporated announced today that Todd Lachman, current President, Mars Global Petcare, has decided to leave Mars at the end of 2014 to relocate his family to San Francisco, California. Todd has been with Mars for 8 years, first leading the Chocolate North America and Latin America business before moving into the lead role of the Mars Global Petcare business. Poul Weihrauch has been appointed as President Mars Global Petcare, effective Jan 1, 2015.

Poul is currently Global President of Mars Food. He also has accountability for Mars Drinks and European Multisales. After 6 years with Nestle, Poul joined Mars in 2000. He has been with Mars for 14 years, and in that time has worked in multiple categories, including Chocolate, Wrigley, Food and Drinks.

Fiona Dawson, currently Regional President of Chocolate UK and Global Retail, will step into the role of Global President, Mars Food with accountability for Mars Drinks and European Multisales. Fiona began her Mars career in Sales in 1988 as a graduate trainee. After many years in Multisales in Ireland, the Netherlands and Belgium, she became the head of the UK Chocolate business in 2005 and has since also added responsibility of the Mars Retail Group.

Andrew Clarke, currently Regional President Petcare for Latin America, will become Mars, Incorporated’s new Chief Customer Officer and a member of the Mars Leadership Team, effective February 15. This is a critical job responsible for driving strategic initiatives related to customers. Coming from Marks & Spencer®, Andrew began with Mars in 2000 in UK Sales and over the next seven years took on increasing responsibility in the function as he moved between the Pet Specialty, Impulse and Grocery teams. Since then, Andrew has taken multiple general manager roles across the business.

Bruce McColl, Mars’ Chief Marketing Officer is being made a member of the Mars Leadership Team. Bruce joined Mars in 1992 in Australia as a brand manager. Over his 22 years in marketing at Mars, Bruce has worked across Mars’ business brands, categories and geographies. His stewardship of Mars global agency relationships and collaboration with our worldwide marketing community have resulted in brand-building, and award- winning marketing that is increasing reach with consumers all over the world.

“We are thrilled to have such great talent within the organization and proud of the growth that these leaders have demonstrated over the years,” said Grant F. Reid, Office of the President, Mars, Incorporated. “These great leaders have an average of more than 19 years of experience in leadership at Mars, and they are a testament to how well our development programs at Mars works.”