In a surprise revelation Mark Hamsey, Pedigree Chum’s chief product line manager, announced a 15% rise in profits for the last quarter. Hamsey attributes the increase in profits to the companies decision to switch from horse meat to beef as the main ingredient in their premium dog food range.
“It’s simple economics really,” said Hamsey when asked about the company’s switch to beef. “We saw an increasing demand for horse meat across the markets and this always drives up prices. At the same time demand for beef from the big food processing companies fell, so we switched to the cheaper meat as our main ingredient.”
Sales of Pedigree Chum’s premium canned dog food benefited from a further boost when news of the high beef content hit social media platforms. Twitter was flooded with tweets accompanied by the #bestbeefyet hash tag and new Pedigree Casserole recipes were being circulated on Facebook.
Sylvia Connelly, a 44 year old mother of 3, posted that her weekly shopping bill reduced by £9.86 when she switched from Asda’s own brand processed meat products to equivalent products under the Pedigree Chum brand.
It is as yet unknown whether this new high-beef content ingredient will be championed by the TV Celebrity Chefs but maverick food campaigner and restauranteur Jamie Oliver was the first to comment publicly. In a GMTV interview aired this morning Oliver said “families have to do the best they can in these harsh economic times. And let’s face it a large can of Pedigree could easily feed a family at dinner time, all you’d need to add was some rolled puff pastry and you’ve got a tasty beef pie.”
The stock market reacted positively to this latest profits announcement, citing a move in investment funds from controversy hit supermarket shares to the pet food giant. 8 out of 10 fund managers said their portfolios preferred the new beefier profits.
