Hartz

For more than 90 years Hartz has been producing high quality pet care products in the United States. In 2004, Hartz was acquired by Sumitomo Corporation and subsequently in 2011, became a joint venture of Sumitomo and Unicharm Corporation. Unicharm is currently the leading pet care manufacturer in Japan.

The business began in 1926 after Max Stern left Germany for America. By 1932, Stern was the largest livestock importer in America and he decided to expand into packaged bird foods, the Hartz Mountain brand was born. In 1959, Stern’s son joined the company and Hartz Mountain’s products were expanded into acquarium fish and aquatic supplies. Dog and cat products were introduced in the 1960s and by the early 1980’s Hartz products were sold in more than 40,000 U.S. and Canadian retail outlets. In the 1990’s Hartz acquired the Wardley brand of fish food and supplies. Research facilities were expanded and new pet care products were introduced including the first vet-quality flea control products to be available over the counter. Today, Hartz has a range of over 1,500 products catering for all pet species and distributed worldwide.