The Big Heart Pet Brands founded on January 28, 2014, by The J.M Smucker Company is a producer, distributor, and marketer of branded pet foods. The Big Heart Pet Brand was previously a pet food division of Del Monte Foods before their 2014 sale of Del Monte Pacific. The Big heart pet brand employs more than 2000 human labor.
Big Heart Pet Brands
With Smucker’s acquisition of big heart in 2014, the company gained an immediate significant presence in the field of pet food, making a staggering $2.3 billion in net sales the same year after being purchased by Smucker. Big heart pet brand occupies the top spot in the market share in dog snacks and second highest position in dry dog foods. The incremental growth was driven by the Natural balance and The milk bone brands, which counterbalance declines in Kibble n’ Bits dry foods. Big hearts control processing plants in Decatur, Alabama, Lawrence, Kansas, Buffalo and New York. In addition to its brands, Big heart pet brand also owns traditionally produced and distributed private labels and utilized 16 co-packers and 12 repackers in the US, Canada, and Thailand.
Most Sold Big Heart Pet Brands Products
As The Natural Balance and The Milk-Bone started replacing the old declines Kibble n’ Bits dry dog foods, immense growth started taking place. The two products hold significant value to the economic aspect of the company. And has become indispensable over the recent years. But there are other products which also contribute to the growth of The Big heart pet brand.
The Milk Bone
The Milk bone is a dog biscuit brand. It was initially developed in 1908 by the F.H Bennett Biscuit Company which functioned as a bakery on the Lower east side of New York, New York City. Originally named Maltoid, the dog biscuit was a bone shaped treat made from minerals, meat meal, and milk. The biscuit was subsequently renamed The milk bone sometime around 1915 to 1926, owing to its high composition of cow milk.
Ingredients – Wheat Flour, Wheat Bran, Meat and Bone Meal, Poultry By-Product Meal, Beef Fat
There has not been any case of a recall, although there was a voluntary recall of some of their product in 2011 which apparently posed no health risks to the dogs consuming the milk bone.
The Natural Balance
The Natural balance by Van Patten in 1989, Van Patten had an idea to make healthy dog foods. At the time Van Patten played tennis with a veterinarian, and she said that the best quality food should have no filter, no wheat, no corn, no soy and no by-products.
A lot of Natural balance dry formulae uphold this initial ingredient list, others such as dog food rolls, included wheat flour and sugar but as of 2014 has been designed to utilize brown rice instead of wheat flour. Natural Balance has large variety of dog treats, rolls or canned forms, including
- Limited Ingredient Diets-Dry Dog
- Limited Ingredient Diets-Wet Dog.
The Natural balance has been recalled twice. The latest being in December 2011, when Diamond Pet Foods discovered Salmonella in their production facility in Gaston, S.C. As a cautionary measure, they announced a massive recall for their brands, including Natural Balance. The following Natural Balance dry dog foods were recalled: Sweet Potato & Venison, Lamb Meal & Rice, Sweet Potato & Bison, Vegetarian, Lamb Meal & Brown Rice Large Breed, and Lamb Meal & Brown Rice Small Breed.
Gravy Train
The Gravy Train is American dog food. The gravy train initially appeared in stores first in the year 1959 as a pet food produced by Gaines and General food corporationbefore being acquired by The Big Heart Pet Brand in 2013. It was the first brand of dog food to have a brown gravy form when water is added to dry kibble (This is the reason for its name), mixing with the kibbles powder coating. The gravy is intended to make the meal more palatable.
The popular advertising catchphrase is “The gravy taste dogs can’t wait to finish.”
The Gravy train was a part of the mass recall of dog foods after a report on melamine contamination in 2007. Afterwards, there has not been any other cause for recalls.
