Big Heart Pet Brands Reviews

Pros

Great leadership and teammates here in Pittsburgh.

Cons

Smuckers bought the company unfortunately.

Pros

low key and relax atmosphere. a lot of room to educate yourself and grow and learn in the company. almost anyone can be your mentor to you. a lot of promotions available if you are skilled. they have a great career path system. they are a little company with a big heart and even bigger name. they do a lot of charity work. extremely supportive with balancing work and family life. they poor out compliments all the time so you know where you stand all the time. they are really good at showing compassion even when you make a mistake. you don't have to worry if you will loose your job. they will walk you through your mistake and help you learn from it.

Cons

constant changes all the time. you have to be prepared. read the book 'who moved my cheese' before working here. busy-ness comes in cycles. april through october is extremely busy and then it slows down in november. january it tries to pick up but it is still slow. by march, the things you tried to get people to jump on is hitting them in the head and soon they are scrambling to get things done by or before the end of april (end of fiscal year). for me this is difficult to encourage others to stay ahead of the curve because everyone thinks 'we still have time'... when we really do not.

Pros

Competitive pay, good benefits including profit sharing and incentive programs.

Cons

Never enough staff to cover ever increasing production demands. Excessive mandatory overtime make it impossible to have any kind of life outside of work.

Pros

Great co-workers - smart and helpful. The office is great - beautiful views, spacious and great location. The brands are also fun to work on - very well-known with lots of brand equity. The President is also incredibly accessible, friendly, and smart. Pay is good, and benefits are great - private gym in the building! Overall, there's also lots of positive change that's being worked on to bring the company and it's culture into this decade. Lots of want and drive for this change across the company - it's moving more slowly than it should, but at least it's moving.

Cons

As mentioned above, change can be slow, this also goes for general process changes and approvals of materials. Too many people at the top want to review items that are just not worth their time. Some control needs to be relinquished some and more ownership needs to be given to Directors/Managers. This will allow for quicker positive change, better innovation and happier employees. Also, culture improvements need to be made quickly - big gripe here. Everyone is nice and its a great office...but need more to get employees to have fun and interact with each other! Especially, when you're competing with the Facebook, Google and all the start-ups! Otherwise, will continue to have high turnover.

Pros

Lots of changes, little communication

Cons

Poor communication to staff and many surprise changes

Pros

Big Heart Pet in Pittsburgh PA was a great place to work. Great culture, friendly coworkers. Good pay & benefits. My management welcomed my ideas and respected my opinion. I had ownership of my region.

Cons

J M Smucker's leadership. Big Heart acquisition was very poorly handled. Most job offers given were just for show. There was no incentive to relocate-many positions offered were at a lower level with lesser benefits. Leadership repeatedly told Pgh employees how "great" the company was going to be in the future even after most were told they were losing their jobs. Big Heart software, processes, & methods proven to be more effective & efficient were disregarded because they were not "the Smucker way" of doing things. Company is highly resistant to change.

Pros

-Great location in downtown San Francisco. -Lean company with fewer layers gives individuals more responsibility and autonomy to make key decisions. -Culture is better than most. Employees are friendly. -Respects hard work and results rather than looking busy and working long hours everyday. -Becoming a more marketing driven culture.

Cons

-Lots of turnover at lower level marketing positions. -No clear role definition between marketing analysts, associate marketers and sr. associate marketers. Depending on brand, sr. associates could be doing analyst work and and analysts could be doing sr. associate work. -Knowledge management and transfer is lacking resulting in lots of fire drills and duplicative work. -Short term focus at the expense of long-term brand health.

Pros

- Great brands - really, some of the best, especially in the pet food arena - Good location in SF - Potential for greatness (unrealized)

Cons

- By far the most hierarchical company I have ever seen. Directors and up get enormous (and I mean enormous) offices, and everyone else has small cubes. It is incredibly difficult for someone at a lower level to speak to anyone above them other than their direct boss - it's just not done. - Finance, not marketing driven - Little diversity in upper management - Lots of turnover at low levels, but at the same time no room for advancement. I think in the last three years possibly three people have been promoted to director - Little opportunity for individuals to make their mark and if they try they are punished for it

Pros

The company was formed out of the divestiture of the Del Monte brands leaving behind solely the pet food brands. We tagged ourselves a $4 billion start-up and it felt that way as the company sought to innovate its brands, its internal systems and operations.

Cons

It was a short term play guided by the ever present hand of private equity firm that had acquired the business which was executing along a punch list to sell the company to the highest bidder which turned out to be Smucker's - a company that seems to be a fine organization.