More on the plants:
http://www.businessfacilities.com/bf_06_03_news1.phpBusiness Facilities June 2003
"
Having no more room to expand at its corporate headquarters in the City of Industry, CA, and following a multi-year nationwide search for the ideal location, premium pet food manufacturer Nutro Products, Inc. chose the city of Victorville as the new location for its 385,000-square-foot dry dog food manufacturing, warehouse, and distribution facility.
"The city has formed a municipal utility offering affordable and reliable power to industrial users at the city’s two industrial parks: Southern California Logistics Airport and Foxborough Industrial Park. It also is building a cogeneration power plant through which it will be able to sell low-cost electricity and steam as a byproduct of the electricity generation. The cogeneration plant is being constructed to encourage industrial expansion within the parks, and will be used by Nutro as well as by neighboring warehouse operations for ConAgra and
M&M/Mars.
"When completed, Nutro’s new manufacturing and distribution center will hire
approximately 200 workers ranging from research and development employees to forklift operators.
"Other major companies that have recently moved to the Inland Empire North region include Boeing, GE Transportation, Pratt & Whitney, Goodyear Tire & Rubber, and
M&M/Mars."
http://www.allbusiness.com/north-america/united-states-california/932637-1.htmlAll Business July 1, 2003
"Nutro Products Inc. has finally announced its intention to locate a manufacturing and distribution facility in the city of Victorville. Company representatives indicated that they would construct the building in the Foxborough Industrial Park. Initially, the structure will be 360,000 square feet in size; however, there will be room for expansion should that be required at some time in the future.
"Nutro will begin construction of the facility in September of 2003 and occupancy is scheduled for summer of 2005. Company officials expect that upon completion some 200 manufacturing and distribution type jobs will be available to local residents.
"Nutro officials estimate that first year investment will exceed $44 million. This figure includes the estimated cost of property, construction of the facility, and salaries."
The people who built the plant & their awards:
http://www.interstatesinstrumentation.com/profile_awards.htmlhttp://www.interstatesinstrumentation.com/profile_industries.html#petfood"The pet food manufacturing industry continues to grow as consumers demand ever-increasing food quality for their companion animals. Interstates provides complete electrical systems design and installation, as well as state-of-the-art automation and control for both domestic and international pet food manufacturers.
"
A key part of our services in this sector is enabling plant-wide automation systems to track ingredients and ensure the safety of our clients’ products."
http://www.interstatesinstrumentation.com/profile_clients.htmlPetfood Plants
Iams Company
Lone Star Feeds
Nutro Products, Inc.The builder's professional affiliations page:
http://www.interstatesinstrumentation.com/profile_affiliations.htmlLink on it:
http://www.afia.org/American Feed Industry Association (AFIA)
http://www.afia.org/Afia/AboutAFIA.aspx"
Membership includes 550 domestic and international companies; state, national and regional associations. Firms are feed and pet food manufacturers, integrators, pharmaceutical companies, ingredient suppliers, equipment manufacturers and companies which supply other products, services and supplies to feed manufacturers."
http://www.petfoodplantsolutions.com/html/about_nutro.html"
At our Victorville facility, we produce only our dry premium pet food products (dry kibble). In addition to Victorville, we have a plant operating in Tennessee."
http://www.petfoodplantsolutions.com/html/about_our_plant.html"
In 2005, we built our state of the art pet food production plant in Victorville. Nutro has another, substantially similar, state-of-the-art facility in Tennessee, which, like our Victorville facility, is located near upscale homes (at approximately the same distance from the plant).
"Nutro uses only high quality ingredients, virtually all of which arrive at the Victorville facility in dried meal form. We also use oils and related products to meet stringent nutritional requirements.
"No animal carcasses or animal parts are used in producing any of our pet foods in Victorville or at any of our other facilities.
"The ingredients, consisting of grains and dried lamb and chicken meal, are mixed together with oils and flavors, cooked and extruded into pellets which are dried and packaged for shipment and sale."
And now we return to the Hill's legal challenge of Nutro's ads for their "Lite" foods:
http://www.adlawbyrequest.com/_db/_documents/NAD,_Nurtro_Products.pdf
August 21, 2007
Page 4
"The challenger (Hill's) took issue with the advertiser's (Nutro) explanation that the high MEC values obtained by the challenger's testing might be linked to temporary product irregularities caused by Nutro's switchover from its Wilson Way production facility to new factories. The challanger argued that it was unlikely that the samples it tested all came from the Victorville, CA plant, as opposed to Nutro's other production facility in Lebanon, TN, which, argued the challenger, the advertiser admitted has produced its "lite" dry products continuously since 1996."
Here's the outcome of the challenge from Pet Age's December 2007, issue:
http://www.petage.com/news120703.asp
"The National Advertising Division of the Council of Better Business Bureaus (New York) in September recommended that Nutro Products Inc. (City of Industry, Calif.) modify advertising claims for its “lite” pet food products to conform to industry standards established by the Association of American Feed Control Officials (Oxford, Ind.).
"The advertising claims, concerning Natural Choice Lite and Natural Choice Small Bites Lite., were challenged by Hill’s Pet Nutrition Inc. (Topeka, Kan.).
"According to Hill’s, Nutro lacked a reasonable basis for its “lite” product claims, because the products substantially exceeded the maximum calorie allowance for “lite” pet food according to certain industry guidelines.
"In response, Nutro said that AAFCO had no requirements for pet food products designated “light” or “lite” when it introduced Natural Choice Lite in 1994. The manufacturer designated the products in question as “lite” because contained less fat and protein than other Nutro dry dog foods, both then and now.
"Furthermore, Nutro noted that temporary manufacturing irregularities at its plants had allowed the unauthorized addition of fat to the “lite” pet food products, skewing the results of certain product tests performed by the challenger. The company presented evidence that the irregularities had been corrected.
"Following its review of the evidence, the NAD determined that the Nutro products in question did not meet the industry standard, established by AAFCO, for “lite” pet food products. Although the products may be described as “reduced calorie,” as compared to the company’s other dry dog foods, they are not accurately described as “lite.”
"Consequently, NAD recommended that Nutro take immediate steps to ensure that its “lite” dry pet food products do not exceed AAFCO calorie limits for “lite” products, and that it immediately cease labeling these products as “lite,” “light” or any other similar designation until such steps have been taken.
"Nutro “respectfully disagree[d]” that its current formulation of Natural Choice Lite product exceeds the caloric guidelines promulgated by AAFCO. Nevertheless, the company said, “[We will] take all of NAD’s suggestions into account for [our] future advertising and make any necessary modifications in accordance with NAD’s recommendations so that [our] Natural Choice Lite product continues to comply with AAFCO guidelines.”
"According to Lou Nicolaides, marketing and communications manager for Nutro Products, the NAD ruling concerned previous formulas of Natural Choice Lite and Natural Choice Small Bites Lite. “Natural Choice Lite and Natural Choice Small Bites Lite currently meet all AAFCO regulations regarding ‘light’ or ‘lite’ pet foods,” he added." [December 2007 PET AGE] Note that it's a given that the "lite" products did
NOT comply with AAFCO guidelines for "lite" food.
Nutro tried getting around the issue by claiming that when these products were introduced and labeled as "lite" before there were AAFCO guidelines for a "lite" designation. The products, though were produced and labeled that way from 1994 on--despite the addition of "lite" criteria by AAFCO and the fact that their foods did not meet that criteria. They made no move to change anything about their "lite" formulas or their package labeling until 2007, when caught in the act by competitor Hill's.
Also note here in the Pet Age article that in spite of all the facts, Nutro continued to assert that their "lite" products--without modification to formulas or labeling--WERE meeting the AAFCO definition of "lite"--even after this was proven false.
This company appears to be truth-challenged all the way around.
It's also interesting to note that the builder of the Victorville facility says above it contains state of the art safety and ingredient tracking systems. So why can't Nutro just publish the data from its process control automation systems?
