Company History
1973
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.
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.
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.
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.