Feedwell Dog Food Celebrates its 60th Anniversary

Feedwell celebrating a 60 year dynasty of pet food excellence

The late Jimmy Clegg Founder of Feedwell.

Roger Clegg Chairman of Feedwell

Vicky Dobbin Finance Director Jamie Clegg MD Feedwell

Photographs by Jim Masson – History by Jim Masson and Albert Titterington

Founder of the company and brand Jimmy Clegg was not only a far sighted entrepreneur but he was a 'character' with whom one could enjoy a bit of 'craic'. From his early days working in the pet food industry to founding his own company he built up a fairly unrivalled knowledge of pet nutrition within his commitment of delivering his customers a top quality food at the best possible price. As son Roger said and grandson Jamie endorsed “ My father’s primary objective, which remains mine today, was and is, to provide the finest possible feeding regime for dogs at the best possible price through the use of top quality ingredients blended with the most up to date formulation. I like to think our brand name clearly states what we deliver Feedwell feeds dogs ‘very well’.

In 1962 he left his job as area sales manager for Scotland, North of England, NI and the Isle of Man to start his own company manufacturing and selling dog food. The Feedwell brand was born in an old train engine shed on the Belfast Road in Bangor based on a biscuit baking plant from the Ormeau Bakery where he and his old friend and workmate Frazer Duncan assembled the whole production line themselves.

In 1972 there was a major disaster in the fortunes of Feedwell when the factory was blown up but not deterred from his ambition to develop a top Irish dog food brand In 1975 he journeyed to USA and visited Anderson International who were one of the pioneers of manufacturing Pet Food using the extrusion process. Jimmy was convinced that this was the way forward and bought an extrusion plant. This was the first of its kind in Ireland and Feedwell was reborn in the old Mill in Annsborough. This historical building was originally the first wet Scotch linen mill in Ireland and was even used as a school once the mill closed down and for 50 years has been synonymous with the Feedwell brand. The planning and the construction of the plant so impressed the top brass of Anderson International, that it was seen as a showcase for others wishing to set up a small plant.

Jimmy had wide sporting interests including shooting (he and his brother Moore had the gun shop in Newtownards), rugby, and motorcycle racing. He also had an interest in horses and greyhounds having success in the showing ring and the show jumping arena with his horses, and qualifying for many greyhound racing finals including the Greyhound Derby at The White City in 1972. He was a former chairman of the Northern Ireland Greyhound Breeders Association and was also on the committee of the Show Jumping Association of Ireland.

In fact some of his first products the original ‘egg and wheaten’ biscuit meal and ‘Racewell’ brand are still remembered and talked about fondly by old greyhound owners and trainers.

Jimmy was very proud when his son Roger, after a career in teaching and merchant banking joined him in 1979. But being Jimmy he required Roger to start at the bottom, "getting his hands dirty" maintaining the machinery and driving the delivery lorry around an increasing customer base while his father concentrated on sales and marketing.

Roger also shared many of his father’s interests including playing rugby for Ireland and Ulster and of course shooting and gundogs. Under Roger’s direction the company continued to modernise and develop.

Prior to him taking a back seat in the business Roger reflected that he was passing on the business to Jamie in good shape within a settled location, on a company owned site, with in-place preventive maintenance, excellent staff producing a highly regarded product range. As Roger said, “ I am delighted to have carried on and extended the traditions started by my father. To keep in personal contact with our customers and to put something back into

The Old Mill Computer control of production

Jamie checks wet pellets The Drying Chamber

(Above) Factory Manager Sean Croskery

(Above Right) Vincent Bannon gets outer ready for despatch

(Left) Gerard Sloan checks quality

(Right) The sales team l-r Austin Kavanagh, Jeff McMaster and Micky McCullagh

their and our sporting interests through dedicated sponsorship. Few if any clubs or events in Ireland organising greyhound racing, gundog tests and trials or dog shows have not benefited from Feedwell sponsorship.”

Jimmy would be very proud to know that the business he founded has been passed on a third generation with Jamie, as Managing Director assisted by his sister Vicky as Financial Director, taking over the reins of the next chapter of the ‘Feedwell’ story. Roger still sits as Chairman of the company on the board of Directors.

From a rural family, Jamie has been surrounded by dogs (and horses) and his interest in country sports has always been a keen one. He has also followed in the family tradition of playing rugby and regularly turns out for Bangor RFC. Jamie graduated in Business Studies from Edinburgh University in 2011 and before joining Feedwell worked in the French Alps for a year in the hospitality industry. He had a good grounding in sales and customer service with Feedwell before taking over from his Dad as MD.

Jamie’s main aim for the business is to continue to further develop Feedwell as an all-island business and he is concentrating efforts in expanding the company’s presence in the ROI and UK markets.

“My main emphasis on the business will be on marketing and sales and production improvements. We’ve been doing work on improved bag design and working on even better customer service so we can continue to meet the expectations of existing and new customers. “

“We are still servicing customers we had back in 1962 when the business started off. We take a pride in our customers and the people who work for us. We have managed to extend our business into the ROI and into the UK market and have glowing recommendations from our happy customers.”

Jamie also explained that Feedwell has made some recent technological improvements to the business. In January 2020 just at the beginnings of covid they invested £700,000 in new production systems, with a new extruder, dryer and fats coating system all improving the process. The plant is now heavily automated ensuring an improved finished product and excellent quality control systems.

He said: “This investment has now doubled our capacity and we have seen an increase in sales of over 30% since we installed the new plant. Originally the dog food was baked in my grandfather’s day in slabs in an oven and broken up, which for it’s day was an excellent product. Today, we are incredibly proud to be the only manufacturer of dried dog food in Northern Ireland and one of only two or three producers in Ireland. We aim to continue our investment in manufacturing over the next few years to continuously improve our product and processes.”

Jamie places great importance on the fact that the business has grown through having a dedicated team of employees and pays a deep personal tribute to the current Feedwell team of 13 employees in the following roles:

Jamie and Vicky with the current Feedwell range of quality products Jamie Clegg – Managing Director Vicky Dobbin – Finance Director Jeff McMaster – Sales Manager Austin Kavanagh – Sales Representative ROI Micky McCullagh – Sales Representative NI and ROI Willeen McCartan – Office Sales Administrator Pearse Brogan – Office Accounts Administrator Stephen McCavery – Van Sales Paul Smylie – Van Sales Sean Croskery – Factory Manager Vincent Bannon – Production Operative and Van Sales Gerard Sloan – Production Operative Ruari Toner – Production Operative He concluded by saying “ We are a tight knit group and we are all committed to the success and future growth of the company.” From my knowledge of founder Jimmy, I can imagine that for him, to see two Cleggs working in harness together and in particular Jamie taking on his old sales, marketing and customer service mantle and taking the business and brand name FEEDWELL forward, would be the finest epitaph he could imagine.