Champion PetFoods

“Biologically appropriate, nourish as nature intended”

Monday 2 June 2014, by camicanelas, Fidel

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A. The main facts about the activities of the company.

Champion Petfoods is an independent company located in Morinville, Alberta (Canada), which manufactures pet food, for dogs and cats. It was founded by Reinhard Muhlenfeld in 1975 with a clear idea that is expressed in their actual slogan, “Biologically Appropriate, nourish as nature intended”, so they pretend to offer pet owners the possibility of giving healthy food to our pets as we would do with our family because they want to transmit that pets are part of our life and families.

B. The Ethical challenges this company is addressing.

This company is differentiated from other pet food companies because of one really important idea, which is that they offer healthy and natural food for pets made of ingredients that would be adequate for human consumption. So, their activity is based in the following facts:

- Biologically Appropriate → the idea is to match pets’ food with what they actually eat in their natural environment. This food includes high quantities of different types of fresh meats. Moreover, they have done studies to really see what our pets need, they realized that diets must be rich in proteins and low in carbohydrates and that is what they do.

- Fresh Regional Ingredients → they only make use of fresh meats, fish and fruits and vegetables. They work with a wide variety of fresh meats, about 16 different types, which arrive daily to their factory, have no preservatives and are raised by local farmers (free range), they also take into account how these animals are raised; without being damaged, in a sustainable way and eating the right food, free of hormones and antibiotics. Regarding to fish, it comes from different lakes and from the ocean too, so this way they make sure overfishing will not be a problem. Fishing must also be sustainable, without big nets that capture all fish. It also arrives daily and it is never frozen. Finally, with respect to fruits and vegetables, they are locally grown by people that they know and trust. Fruits and vegetables are never dried or frozen, and are free or preservatives. And as they are regional products, depending on the season they may use one or another.

- Never Outsourced → Champion PetsFood produce their products under their own roof, in their own kitchen, controlling every step of the process. This way consumers can be sure where their pets food come from.

- No Water Added → As Champion PetFoods only uses fresh products, which arrive daily to their door, they can cook their ingredients without adding water. This way they conserve all the goodness and flavor that naturally exist on fresh ingredients. Additionally, their cooking process is slow and made at low temperatures in order to maximize the nutrients from the fresh ingredients.

Moreover, all the ingredients used on each product are clearly mentioned on the packaging.

C. What makes you believe this company is really ethical and why you trust it?

In our opinion, the fact that they have won many awards such as Pet Food of the Year 2011-2012 by the Glycemic Research Institute of Washington DC., they show total transparency on the ingredients they use and the production process and specify everything on their product labels even if it not mandatory by law, it makes us feel confident about the ethics of this company. Moreover, you can find true stories of consumers showing their pet’s satisfaction and health improvement and it is recommended by breeders, internet blogs and web pages such as Dog Food Advisor.

D.The possible challenges facing the company in the future and how you think this company may improve.

This company is not facing really big challenges but they should be aware and learn about past problems. Some years ago the company was sued because of odor problems that affected all nearby population. Champion PetFoods finally solved that problem by reducing the odor a 95 percent. Nowadays, they are going to open a new factory in Kentucky, so they should take into account this previous problem to improve the applied solution to their new facilities.

Moreover, they also faced a problem exporting their products to Australia because the local regulations forced them to treat their products with gamma irradiation before entering the country, which caused serious health problems to the pets that got that food. They solved that problem by recalling all those products from the market but they did not tell anything to the consumers before. So, they should avoid this kind of miscommunication with their consumers and be aware about the regulations of other countries before exporting in future commercial operations.

Bibliography

http://www.championpetfoods.com/

http://investing.businessweek.com/research/stocks/private/snapshot.asp?privcapId=30825663

http://www.wherearethepetfoodchampions.com/web/Orijen_Recall.html

Location: Morinville, Alberta (Canada)

Sector: Other service activities

Official website: http://www.championpetfoods.com/

Key figures:

Nowadays, they export their products to more than 50 countries.

Nbr. visits: 970