Seeing an opportunity
In 1946 Ed Lowe joined his father’s business in Cassopolis, Michigan. Among other products, Lowe & Lowe distributed industrial absorbents for the Dri-Rite Co. A few month later, Ed’s neighbor, Kay Draper, stopped by the Lowes’ warehouse to ask Ed for some sand, explaining that the ashes she used in her cat’s litter box resulted in sooty paw prints all over the house. Instead of sand, Ed suggested she try some fuller’s earth clay he had in the garage. (This particular batch of aborbent clay had been sent as a sample by a Dri-Rite competitor, who hoped Lowe & Lowe would market his product.) Draper took the clay and soon came back for more, finding it far more more absorbent than sand.
After rave reviews from Draper and other neighbors, Ed established a new division at Lowe & Lowe, marketing the material as “Kitty Litter” at pet shops and cat shows throughout the Midwest. Two years later he purchased his father’s distribution business and devoted himself to building a national market for Kitty Litter.
May 17, 1945 — William Kane establishes the Dri-Rite Co. of Chicago and appoints Henry Lowe as a Dri-Rite distributor.
March 1, 1946 — Under the name of Lowe and Lowe Co., Ed Lowe joins his father selling ice and coal to residents of Vandalia, Jones and Marcellus, MI — and industrial absorbents to local companies.
September 19, 1946 — William Kane sends Ed Lowe a sample of Dri-Bed, the double-action chick and poultry litter manufactured by the W. H. Barber Co. in Chicago.
December 1, 1946 — Lowe’s Sawdust Co. hires Robert Follett as a truck driver.
March 1, 1947 — Lowe’s Sawdust Co. leases a building along right of away in Cassopolis, MI.
September 1, 1947 — Kay Draper purchases fuller’s earth clay from Ed Lowe to use in her cat box.
October 1, 1947 — At the prompting of Ed Lowe, the Davenport Pet Shop in South Bend, IN, test-markets fuller’s earth from Ed to sell as cat-box-filler.
October 9, 1947 — Ed Lowe purchases Southern Clay Co.’s first carload of fuller’s earth clay.
October 28, 1948 — The Harry W. West Printing Co. of South Bend, IN., prints the first Kitty Litter bag.
November 22, 1948 — Promotional mailings are sent to pet stores in the United States and Canada announcing Kitty Litter.
February 25, 1949 — Kitty Litter can be purchased in Saks Fifth Avenue in New York, Hudson’s of Detroit and Marshall Field’s of Chicago.
July 1, 1949 — In cooperation with Trupal Pet Shop, WKAM radio station of Warsaw, IN., announces over the air: “Kitty Litter … taking the place of sand … but doesn’t smell when used over and over.”
September 16, 1949 — Kitty Litter is now available bulk in 50-pound bags or packed in 5-pound bags for resale.
December 30, 1949 — Lowe & Lowe Co. offers a Kitty Litter pan available through their jobbers.