Frequently Asked Questions
Pet Health and Nutrition
What pet food do you make?
We manufacture the Royal Canin and James Wellbeloved brands of
pet food. For information about our foods and your pet’s nutrition,
please visit the following sites:
Royal Canin
Precise nutritional solutions based solely on the needs of your dog
and cat throughout life.
James
Wellbeloved A naturally healthy, hypoallergenic range of
food & treats for dogs and cats and complete food for
ferrets.
Employment
How do I find out about job opportunities at Crown Pet
Foods?
Please check the Careers section of
the website to see current vacancies and job descriptions. If want
to apply for a particular job, please email your CV with a covering
letter to Alex
Chadwick or post to: Alex Chadwick, Crown Pet Foods, Oak Tree
Meadow, Blackworthy Road, Castle Cary BA7 7PH.
Why don’t you employ more local people?
When we moved from Yeovil to Castle Cary, we were delighted that
all our staff chose to move with us. Of the 100 people employed in
the offices & production facility, 14 live within 5 miles of
the site and a further 55 within 15 miles.
Landscaping & wildlife
There is an area of bare ground in front of your new
building. How long will it be like this?
Now the warehouse has been completed, the stones are being
removed and grass seed planted. This will grow and mature over the
coming months.
Some of your trees don’t seem to be
thriving?
The tulip trees are not thriving in this climate; all trees
which have not rooted are being replaced with trees of the same
height.
What varieties of trees and plants do you have on your
site?
6,000 metres of perimeter has been planted with a mix of shrubs
and trees including field maple and hawthorn. Elsewhere around the
site there is a combination of deciduous and evergreen trees
including Scots pine, alder, cherry, ash, hazel, white willow,
holly and oak as well as woodland edge plants including dogwood,
spindle, blackthorn, dog rose and Guelder rose. There are also
areas of wild flower meadow, parkland grass and aquatic plants in
the new 1200 sq m pond.
I have seen 2 swans on your pond but was worried whether
they would be able to get out as swans need quite a long run to get
up and out of the pond area?
We frequently have swans in addition to ducks and other wildlife
visiting the pond and the swans are readily able to get out of the
pond fence boundaries.
What happens to toads crossing your site during their
Spring migration?
We patrol our site twice a week, checking for toads which have
become trapped in drains. In spring 2008, we moved 61 toads from
roads or drains and found 6 toads which had sadly been squashed or
drowned. We also moved 5 palmate newts and 80 smooth newts from
drains. The toads and newts were taken to the pond at the rear of
Delaware Veterinary Group.
Lighting
What are you doing to ensure the lighting from your site
is not contributing to light pollution?
Using a lux metre to monitor our lighting has enabled us to turn
off 50% of our road lighting and reduce our bulb size from 250W to
150W whilst still maintaining the lighting levels required to
fulfil our commitment to staff & visitor safety. Our lux level
is around 40, which is the same as that of the street lighting on
Blackworthy Road. We are also fitting sensors so that the lighting
will automatically switch on and off at dusk and daylight.
Buildings
I don’t like the colour of your buildings. Can you
paint them green or brown?
In fact many people feel that the buildings blend well into the
sky, and our buildings have also received praise in a National
publication. The colour of our buildings was part of our planning
application and cannot be changed. The colour is determined by the
cladding used in construction and paint would rapidly become
unsightly. As the 1000 trees and shrubs we have planted mature,
these will enhance the visual aspect of the whole site.
I would prefer the top of the tower to be painted
grey.
The colour of our buildings was part of our planning application
and cannot be changed. The colour is determined by the cladding
used in construction and paint would rapidly become unsightly.
Roads and Transport
Why did you come to Castle Cary where the roads are not
as good as Yeovil or Wincanton?
Previously we were based in Yeovil and wanted to be as close to
there as possible so that we could maintain employment for our
loyal workforce. Our search for suitable industrial sites included
Yeovil and Wincanton, and the nearest site with available land was
at Castle Cary.
The lorries visiting your site seem very big for local
roads.
The number and size of lorries entering the site was agreed as
part of our planning permission, with agreed approach routes to
minimise impact on the community. We have made significant
improvements to Blackworthy Road, spending around £900,000 to
improve access and safety.
We are now further improving signage to ensure designated routes
are strictly adhered to by drivers and are giving our multilingual
guidelines to all drivers to ensure they are fully aware of our
opening times and access routes.
See Drivers
Handbook  (English Version)
What should I do if I see lorries in unauthorised or
built up areas?
If you do see lorries in an unauthorised or built up area,
please phone Glen Jefferson on 07918 724 643 at the time of the
incident so we can take immediate action.
I would like to reduce the food miles of my dog and cat
food by purchasing food made in Somerset.
Dog food is currently made at our production facility in Castle
Cary and we’ll begin producing James Wellbeloved cat food on site
in April 2009. James Wellbeloved and Royal Canin pet foods can be
purchased locally from Delaware Veterinary Group, Town &
Country and Cary Pet Supplies, enabling you to reduce your pet food
miles to the minimum.
Materials and Ingredients
Is the tea and coffee served on site fair
trade?
We use Flavia and Klix teas, coffees and hot chocolates from
Mars. The Mars programme is "Brighter Tomorrow at Origin" which is
similar to Fair Trade but goes even further to help farmers.
Brighter Tomorrow at Origin means that farmers from selected
cooperatives (in Malawi and Kenya) are helped to improve methods to
ensure a higher quality product and therefore a higher price;
funding is also provided for community and environmental projects;
for example provision of healthcare and measures to combat
deforestation.
Do Crown Pet Foods have an ethical trading policy around
consideration for indigenous people?
Consideration of indigenous people is very important to us. Our
supplier audit looks in detail at people and the ethical aspects of
trade with any potential suppliers.
Is the poultry you use farm assured?
The poultry we use in the manufacture of our pet foods is from
birds reared to the Assured Chicken Production standard, with
around 15% of the poultry from free range birds.
Do you use raw meat in preparing your pet
foods?
We do not use any raw meat; our protein is delivered in the form
of dried powder.
What ingredients do you use to make your pet
foods?
Our pet foods are made from combining the following ingredients
in exact amounts to produce our specialist recipes: protein in the
form of dried meat powder, cereals such as rice or maize, fats in
the form of gravies, vitamins and minerals. The meat, cereals,
minerals and vitamins are cooked using a combination of steam and
pressure and a gravy coating added. The kibbles – individual,
bite-sized combinations of ingredients - are then packed into
special bags from which oxygen is extracted to ensure they are
maintained at optimum quality and palatability.
Do you make canned pet food on your site?
We do not make any wet pet food on this site, only dry food in
the form of kibbles.
Odour Management
What odour-abatement equipment do you use?
We use a combination of technologies:
Condenser – this absorbs water soluble odours and cools steam
from the cooking process to increase lifespan and efficiency of the
carbon filter.
Carbon filter – a filter containing highly porous activated
carbon which absorbs odour molecules as the steam is passed through
it.
Applied Plasma Physics (APP) – steam emitted from the cooking
process passes through 200 tubes where high-energy electrons break
down odour molecules.
If you increase your rate of production, range of
products and working hours, will the equipment still be as
effective?
During trials, our equipment has worked will with a range of
products and we are closely monitoring it as we gradually increase
our production levels to ensure there is no increase in odour
emissions.
The equipment fitted has been chosen to manage our product range
and production rate.
Why did you install a carbon filter rather than a
bio-filter?
A bio-filter is effective technology, but when production is
stopped for 24-48hours, the bacteria in a bio-filter are not fed
and die; when production is restarted, there is a period of odour
emission until the bacteria have re-colonised. Taking the advice of
experts in this field, we have chosen a carbon filter as the best
for our production schedule as this is effective immediately it is
turned on.
Sponsorship
Do you provide sponsorship for local
activities?
We sponsor a wide range of activities and events in Castle Cary,
Ansford and the surrounding area. We also have a fund at the
Somerset Community Foundation through which we provide support for
local charities.
 Somerset Community Foundation is a local charitable
trust directing support to local charities and voluntary groups in
Somerset.
Tel: 01458 833133 Email: info@somersetcf.org.uk
Site visits
Are groups able to visit your production
facility?
If you are a group who would like to visit our facility, please
send your request to kbraunton@crownpetfoods.co.uk, or by post to
Kate Braunton, Crown Pet Foods, Oak Tree Meadow, Blackworthy Road,
Castle Cary BA7 7PH. Tours are usually Tuesday to Thursday and we
need a minimum 2 weeks notice.
Other questions
If I have another question, how can I get in
touch?
You can email Crown Pet Foods using our online enquiry form, phone our help line on 0845
300 3785, or write to us at Crown Pet Foods, Oak Tree Meadow,
Blackworthy Road, Castle Cary BA7 7PH.
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