Company History

WE DEAL IN PET COMFORT.

Our Story

1972

After a decade of experience in the animal feed industry, Don Pestell starts a distribution company, Pestell-Agri Products, distributing 5 feed ingredients to Ontario feed dealers from a leased building located in New Hamburg, Ontario, Canada.

1976

Pestell Agri-Products is one of the first companies in North America to sell soft wood shavings as a replacement for straw bedding for use in broiler barns and horse stables.

Pestell Transport is established with 4 transport trucks delivering wood shaving to U.S. customers while picking up feed ingredients from U.S. based suppliers that will be distributed by Pestell Agri-Products.

1978

Pestell Agri-Products is one of the first companies to compress wood shavings into bales for easier and efficient transport reducing the freight cost per bale.

1980

Don Pestell purchases 7 acres and constructs an office and warehouse at the company’s present location in New Hamburg, Ontario, located approximately 100km west of Toronto in the center of Ontario’s agricultural industry.

1988

Pestell Pet Products is launched to market Pestell branded pet products.

1990

Pestell Pet Products launches clumping cat litter under the Pestell brand name “Easy Clean”.

1992

Pestell Pet Products launches a line of small animal bedding and builds the first production facility in Canada to produce compressed wood shavings for the pet market.

1995

Pestell Group purchases a fertilizer blending facility in Baden, Ontario and converts it to a packaging facility. This gives them the capability of receiving bulk materials via rail or truck.

Pestell Agri-Products begins distributing fertilizer micros.

1996

Pestell Agri-Products purchases a building in Kirkton, Ontario and converts it to process and bag copper sulphate trace mineral.

1998

Pestell Agri-Products is renamed Pestell Minerals & Ingredients with an updated company logo.

Pestell Minerals & Ingredients makes a financial investment in a joint venture copper sulphate production facility in Ningbo, China.

2001

Pestell Pet Products is the first company in Canada to import silica cat litter.

2003

Pestell Minerals & Ingredients makes a financial investment in a copper sulphate manufacturing facility in Chile.

2006

Pestell Pet Products launches Boxo small animal bedding made from recycled corrugate.

2007

Pestell Group buys 20 acres adjacent to its present facility, Pestell Group, and builds a new 65,000 square foot warehouse with space for a new automated packaging facility.

2008

Pestell International Mining and Exploration Inc. is created to develop an open pit copper mine in Chile.

2010

New production facility completed. Designed to take granular product from rail efficiently and produce both Pestell Minerals and Ingredients and Pestell Pet Products. The new facility was designed with a tangible level of automation, while allowing the companies some flexibility.

2012

Pestell’s 40th Anniversary celebration brought together customers, suppliers, current and retired employees.

2013

Pestell Pet Products develops and launches LifeMate, the first clumping cat litter with a pH indicator to give cat owners an early indication of a possible health problem.

2015

Undertook the construction of a 65,000 square foot warehouse expansion to support the growth of Pestell Group.