Petco acquires 20 commercial properties

The US speciality retailer Petco Animal Supplies has acquired 20 stores formerly belonging to the Kids R Us chain for approx. US$ 45 mio (37 mio €). The stores were owned by Office Depot, the office products company, which bought 124 Kids R Us outlets at the start of March. It intends to use 50-60 of the locations for its own products, while the rest are to be sold off. Around half of the stores taken over by Petco are in South Florida and Ohio, where Petco was previously under-represented, according to its chairman Brian Devine. Petco now intends to increase its market penetration in these areas.