Someone at work has told me that jwb have been taken over by pedigree. She has put her dog onto Burns as she says that the ingredients in jwb may no longer be of good quality. Does anyone know if this is right, and should I be thinking of changing my dogs diet?
jane

Yes, JWB are owned by Masterfoods (Mars Inc).  As for the ingredients I have no idea.

Debs

Does it really matter which holding company takes over another company? Pedigree is part of Masterfoods, the European Division of Mars Incorporated - which also produces vending machines and Mars Bars! There's no logical reason at all to suppose the ingredients or production of JWB will change in any way.

Exactly JG.  There are loads of people on here who wouldn't touch Pedigree as a food but are more than happy with JWB or, for example, Royal Canin.  There is no reason to think that the ingredients will differ in any one of these - or the hundreds of other companies that are owned by Mars Inc! ;)

I agree with JG.  There are many "names" that are owned by conglomerates etc and who make differing foods for differing markets.

It would not make commercial sense to alienate the market which JWB is aimed at. Therefore who or what owns JWB is neither here nor there.

If you worked in the food industry you would realise that there are many "up market" brands that are owned by those considered "down market" it is all about capturing the relevant market sector.

It is exactly the same with brands that produce "own brand" versions of their product for supermarkets etc.

I don't think there would be any problem.  They are unlikly to make a popoular brand worse and at the end of the day it's not owned by pedigree at all, just the same company that owns pedigree and RC also own JWB, the 3 dog food manufactures are stll in direct competition with eachother.

Although maybe the mars bar will start coming in turkey and rice!!!!!!

JWB is made just up the road from me, but i still like Burns!!

Thank you for your replies. I just wondered about the ingredients as my friend at work led me to believe that cheaper ingredients were going to be used from different suppliers and she has put her dog onto Burns.
jane

>I just wondered about the ingredients as my friend at work led me to believe that cheaper ingredients were going to be used from different suppliers

Give it time :( Going by the record of just about every pet food company who has sold out in the past their ingredients will slowly and surely go down.I hope i'm wrong but the pattern is almost always the same Unfortunately profit will eventually win out,and the quality of the product and therefore the health of the animals eating it will fall by the wayside :(

Hills,Purina,there are many more i'm sure, that i cant think of all used to be decent foods before they were sold off.

JWB ceased being independent in 2000 I think so it's not exactly a recent development ;-) It was bought by Royal Canin which was then acquired by Masterfoods in 2001. If there were going to be significant changes in the quality of ingredients, I'd have thought they would have been noticed by now.

>Unfortunately profit will eventually win out,and the quality of the product and therefore the health of the animals eating it will fall by the wayside

Obviously all businesses that supply products for a market make profits including the good old butcher who sells raw ;)  I too hope that the ingredients don't change because JWB suits my dog very well.  I think you have to consider though that the profit margin for any of the products produced by a company are going to be relative.  Whilst price doesn't always reflect quality in this case it does seem to reflect the ingredients which is why it is more expensive, but the profit margin is already built in as well and will likely be a similar percentage to the other products in the dog food range.  By altering the ingredients to make them similar to the cheaper products in Mars' range would only serve to alienate the JWB client base causing them to look elsewhere for a product similar to the one before i.e. JWB.  So, it makes no sense for Mars to change the ingredients as they would end up losing money, not making it.

Just been looking on interent and found JWB is owned by Crown pet foods (well I now remmeber I know that!!!) and they also own RC and timberwolf which is a new food people have been raving about :)

Obviously I hadn't a clue who owned JWB and as the food suits it wasn't important to me.  Good piece of research though that just goes to show that they are trying to attract new customers and not put off their bread and butter customers :) Horses for courses (love that phrase :P)

Well I didn't know untill just now they owned others! :D  I have a slight interest as I work in a pet shop :) Customers think I know what I'm talking about half the time...can you believe it!? :D

Are you in your local pet shop or Stevenage one?  Just wondering if we've been face to face and not known it? 

I used to be in Letchworth...now I'm in Bradford! :D