Mars, the maker of Pedigree and Whiskas, is to spend £161m modernising its 75-year-old pet food factory in Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire, the company announced today.
The investment will create more than 30 technical and engineering roles in the first year, according to Mars, and expand the site’s apprentice programme from 26 to 33 permanent positions by next year.
The commitment takes Mars’s total capital investment in the UK since 2021 to £661m. In May, the company announced £190m for its chocolate factory in Slough.
Mars said the upgrades at Melton Mowbray would help to cut production waste and improve the recycling of packaging. The work includes new pouch production lines designed to use recyclable materials, alongside advanced manufacturing technology, the company said.
The factory was built in 1951 and is where Whiskas cat food and Pedigree dog food were first made, according to Mars. It marks its 75th year of operation in 2026.
The site employs about 200 people and has the capacity to produce more than one million pouches of pet food a day. British customers account for 95 per cent of its output, with the remainder exported to European markets, Mars said.
The company said the Melton Mowbray investment formed part of its plans to invest €1bn in its European operations by the end of 2026.
Nick Foster, general manager for Mars Pet Nutrition in northern Europe, said Britain was a “cornerstone of our global pet care business”.
He said the latest investment was a “statement of our confidence in the UK market and the vital role our British factories play within our wider European network”.
Jonathan Reynolds, the business secretary, said the plans would “bring jobs, apprenticeships and opportunities”.
The government has made technical training part of its industrial strategy, including a £275m package for skills and apprenticeships announced last year. A Department for Education campaign survey published last year found that nine in ten manufacturing SMEs expected a skills shortfall within their business over the following 12 months.
The UK is the third-largest pet food market globally, according to Mars. The company’s portfolio also includes Sheba, Dreamies and Cesar, as well as Linnaeus, a veterinary network of about 180 clinics and referral hospitals in the UK and Ireland.
Mars, a privately owned US company, employs more than 10,000 people in Britain, its second-biggest market. It has eight manufacturing facilities across the UK.
The Slough programme announced in May covers robotics, artificial intelligence and upgraded machinery at the Berkshire factory, opened by Forrest Mars in 1932, where the Mars bar was conceived. The site employs 1,850 people, and Mars said £32m of the Slough investment is planned for 2027 to 2028.
Announcing the Slough plans, Mars said it had invested more than £118m in UK capital across its snacking, food and petcare businesses in 2024 and 2025.
Peter Kyle, then business and trade secretary, said at the time that the Slough investment was “a strong vote of confidence in the UK as a place to manufacture and innovate”.
