£30m investment at pet food producer to enable ambitious growth plans

North Yorkshire-based pet food company, Inspired Pet Nutrition, (IPN) has unveiled an investment of over £30m in new technologies designed to significantly expand technical capability, potential product range and capacity.

IPN has put more than £6m into its wet food facility to more than double its capacity.

The company has also invested nearly £25m at its Thirsk-based factory to increase its technical capability, product range and use of fresh ingredients.

IPN, owner of brands including Harringtons and Wagg, celebrated 100 years in business last year. It evolved from a family-founded animal feeds company in 1923 to its current operation, with great grandson of founder James R Page, Richard Page, now at the helm as chairman.

IPN acquired Pet Food UK in 2020, expanding its brand portfolio to include Barking Heads, Meowing Heads and AATU.

It recently confirmed it had become a £200m sales business, with ambitions of exceeding £500m of sales within the next five years.

Anthony Stones

Chief operating officer, Anthony Stones, said: “This valuable investment represents IPN’s core values in providing accessible, affordable nutrition.

“We’ve been developing our recipes and portfolio of brands for a century now and are constantly looking for ways to improve our offering for pet parents.

“By investing in our technical capabilities and upstreaming our supply chain, we have better control over the quality of our recipes and greater traceability of our ingredients.

“Alongside this, we’re increasing the size of our technical team and will have a new laboratory.

“We’re also investing in real-time testing equipment – and all this means that there’s continuous improvements both to our products and manufacturing processes.”