10/1/1953
Ed forms a new company, Happy Day Products Inc., to overcome pricing problems and profit demands between the pet store market and the grocery industry. A few months later, Happy Day Products introduces Tidy Cat to sell in supermarkets.
10/1980
Lowe’s Inc. implements a corporate-wide program to encourage wellness and good health.
8/1/1968
The company opens the Mr. Friendly Pet Store in South Bend, Ind. Although the concept didn’t take off, Ed envisions a chain of franchised pet stores.
1/27/1954
Kitty Litter ads appear in numerous magazines, including Better Homes and Gardens, Cats, American Family, Sunset, American Home, McCall’s, House Beautiful, Ebony, Modern Romances and Parents’.
1/1/1969
Lowe’s uses six semi tractor trailers to advertise Kitty Litter and Tidy Cat brands while transporting products throughout Illinois, Tennessee, Indiana, Ohio and Michigan. Estimated audience impression is 14 million people per year.
7/28/1954
Ed changes the name of his company from Lowe & Lowe to Lowe’s Inc. The new entity handles all pet items, including its flagship product, Kitty Litter. Offices are established in a house at the southwest corner of York and O’Keefe streets in Cassopolis, Mich.
3/1/1946
Ed Lowe is discharged from the Navy and returns to his home in southwest Michigan.ns.
4/1/1946
Ed Lowe joins his father’s business in Marcellus, Mich., selling ice and coal to nearby residents and industrial absorbents to commercial customers, including the Whirlpool, Bendix and Studebaker corporations.
11/1/1983
— The Maricopa plant undergoes a major expansion, including the addition of a 30,000-square-foot warehouse and a completely automated packaging line, which enables it produce 120 tons of finished product per year.