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In 1993, John Burns began his mission to change pet food forever. As a vet in the 1980s, John saw an ongoing trend of poorly pets with preventable conditions. Among the tinned mystery meats and table scraps that were common in the nineties, Burns introduced a revolutionary idea: natural, healthy pet food modelled on a homecooked diet.
Over 30 years later, we’ve won numerous awards, sold over 3 billion bowls of wholesome pet food to date and helped generations of pets live the healthiest and happiest lives possible.
Together with Assisi Pet Care, we still follow that same simple philosophy, to create healthy and wholesome recipes that pets love, and to put pets, people, and the planet at the heart of everything we do.
Burns has always believed in the positive impact a healthy diet can have on our beloved pets. Since we were founded by veterinary surgeon John Burns in 1993, we’ve only ever used a selection of real ingredients, like tasty chicken, brown rice and veggies, to create simple and wholesome recipes that pets love.
Burns has come a long way from its fledgling days. After thirty years, our mission remains the same: to improve the lives of pets through natural nutrition. We aim to empower pet owners with high-quality, balanced pet food products that are sustainable and contribute to their pets’ long-term health and happiness.
Our focus remains on campaigning for positive change in the pet food industry, be it through funding community projects, sharing our expert knowledge of pet nutrition or continuing to develop award-winningly tasty products. We aim to put pets, people, and the planet at the heart of everything we do.
Our products are on the shelves at over 6,000 stockists and export pet food all over the world to countries as far and wide as Hong Kong and Portugal.
Read our timeline below to discover how it all started, our major milestones and where we are today.
2023
Following the celebration of Burns Pet Nutrition’s 30th anniversary, we were acquired by a team of fellow pet lovers at Assisi Pet Care! With the help of our friends at Assisi, we’re able to continue our mission to help people, pets and the planet one bowl at a time!
2018
In 2018 we celebrated 25 years of trading, and 25 years of feeding healthy and happy pets. We also decided to donate 25% of our profits to charity. What is amazing is the fact that John is still at the helm of the business and comes to work every day.
2009
Our Wet Food, previously titled “Penlan Farm Moist Food” was born this year! With wholesome ingredients sourced locally from farms in Wales, manufactured in our local Burry Port factory and modelled on a homecooked diet, our wet food marked a major milestone in our history and remains one of our bestsellers.
2015
We are recognised as an accredited Living Wage Employer for our commitment to paying high wages and become the first UK pet food business to pay the real Living Wage. Most staff earn in excess of this.
2007
Owing to the success of the business, in 2007 John launched his own charity, The Burns Pet Nutrition Foundation. Prior to this, Burns had already been dishing out generous donations but the charity status formalised John’s vision to improve the lives of people and pets across the UK.
1993
Following 10 years of hard work, determination and perseverance, the UK’s first natural pet food company was born. It started with John, West Wales and a car full of pet food. The original stock level was a 2-tonne batch distributed into plain polythene sacks with a leaflet glued to the front. Very sophisticated!
1995
The editor of Dogs Today, Beverley Cuddy published an article on Burns titled Back to Basics which really got the phone lines ringing and enabled the business to go national.
1997
Burns became the first UK business to bring chemical-free pet food to market. Prior to this, all pet food manufactured in the UK contained antioxidising chemical to stop the food going rancid. John worked around the clock to find a natural alternative, eventually discovering that you could use Vitamin E and rosemary oil to preserve food. Burns made the switch to chemical-free pet food, setting the industry standard for others to follow.
1980
In the same decade that brought us the Rubix Cube and New Order, Veterinary Surgeon John Burns was cooking up an idea that would go on to change the pet food industry for the better. Natural, healthy pet food modelled on a homecooked diet.
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