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The Polish pet supplies chain Kakadu has been created by a merger of three privately owned retail firms to form one large trading group. The chain aims to open up to 100 outlets by 2015.
Download: Newcomer with big plans (PDF file)
At some point in the spring of 2008, the owners and managing directors of the three Polish speciality chains Anna Zoo, Pyszczak and AB realised that they faced competition not only in their own country but had to reckon with a rapidly increasing influx of competitors from abroad too. To be able to counter this threat, they decided on a major step: to merge their three companies, which had operated hitherto independently of one another, to form a new, large and therefore more powerful pet supplies chain. The contracts were finally signed in September 2008, and four Anna Zoo outlets, three Pyszczak stores and 12 branches of AB were run henceforth under the Kakadu logo. The former proprietors and managing directors of the three chains received shares in the new company.
Work quickly began on converting the stores to the new logo and putting together a uniform concept. When a financial investor entered the group in March 2009, the funds were then also available for further expansion. The Kakadu chain now operates 28 outlets, most of them in the Polish capital Warsaw. One feature that is common to all the stores is their location in shopping malls or specialist retail parks. Vice-president Marceli Ozieblo believes that only such locations offer the kind of footfall his shops need to survive.
A rounded concept
The Kakadu stores are categorised into three classes: type A (17 stores currently) offers a retail area of 100 to 300 m², type B (eight stores at present) 300 to 500 m² and type C (three stores) 500 to over 1 000 m². Each outlet is run by a shop manager, who can create his range from a general assortment of around 30 000 products. With the exception of Kakadu’s own brands, which include the cat litter “Brylant”, “Petsi” accessories and the moist food products of the Italian manufacturer Agras Delic, each shop orders independently from suppliers and then settles up via the central office. Kakadu aims to cover 20 per cent of its entire product range with private labels in the long term. Although the chain does not yet have a central warehouse, Marceli Ozieblo is not ruling out the possibility of opening one in the near future.
The range in the stores comprises products for dogs, cats, small mammals, birds and reptiles. Fish, small mammals, birds and reptiles are offered for sale in the shops. Kakadu does not support the sale of dogs and cats in pet shops, something which is still popular in Poland, because this trade is the subject of increasingly controversial public debate. Nevertheless, food and accessory products for dogs constitute the most successful segment, closely followed by cat products. In contrast to other European countries, the garden pond segment is substantially under-represented, but is developing in small stages. A special feature of the Kakadu stores is the wide range of products for anglers, extending from simple fishing tackle and equipment to outboard motors for fishing boats.
Big plans
The country’s capital Warsaw currently boasts the largest number of Kakadu outlets, followed by Wroclaw and Lodz. In the long term, however, the aim is to open Kakadu outlets in all towns of at least 100 000 inhabitants, with a mix respectively of several A, B and C stores. Marceli Ozieblo rules out any expansion into more rural areas, as dogs and cats there are fed primarily on leftovers or home-cooked food and no ready-to-use pet food is sold there.
“In the next five years we will increase the overall number of stores to 70 to 100,” says Marceli Ozieblo. A large proportion of this increase is expected to come from previously independent pet shops and small chains joining the Kakadu system or being taken over. The new stores are also expected to be opened principally in shopping centres and specialist commercial centres. Kakadu’s central office in Zabki awaits the much-heralded competition from the West with equanimity.
At some point in the spring of 2008, the owners and managing directors of the three Polish speciality chains Anna Zoo, Pyszczak and AB realised that they faced competition not only in their own country but had to reckon with a rapidly increasing influx of competitors from abroad too. To be able to counter this threat, they decided on a major step: to merge their three companies, which had operated hitherto independently of one another, to form a new, large and therefore more powerful pet supplies chain. The contracts were finally signed in September 2008, and four Anna Zoo outlets, three Pyszczak stores and 12 branches of AB were run henceforth under the Kakadu logo. The former proprietors and managing directors of the three chains received shares in the new company.
Work quickly began on converting the stores to the new logo and putting together a uniform concept. When a financial investor entered the group in March 2009, the funds were then also available for further expansion. The Kakadu chain now operates 28 outlets, most of them in the Polish capital Warsaw. One feature that is common to all the stores is their location in shopping malls or specialist retail parks. Vice-president Marceli Ozieblo believes that only such locations offer the kind of footfall his shops need to survive.
A rounded concept
The Kakadu stores are categorised into three classes: type A (17 stores currently) offers a retail area of 100 to 300 m², type B (eight stores at present) 300 to 500 m² and type C (three stores) 500 to over 1 000 m². Each outlet is run by a shop manager, who can create his range from a general assortment of around 30 000 products. With the exception of Kakadu’s own brands, which include the cat litter “Brylant”, “Petsi” accessories and the moist food products of the Italian manufacturer Agras Delic, each shop orders independently from suppliers and then settles up via the central office. Kakadu aims to cover 20 per cent of its entire product range with private labels in the long term. Although the chain does not yet have a central warehouse, Marceli Ozieblo is not ruling out the possibility of opening one in the near future.
The range in the stores comprises products for dogs, cats, small mammals, birds and reptiles. Fish, small mammals, birds and reptiles are offered for sale in the shops. Kakadu does not support the sale of dogs and cats in pet shops, something which is still popular in Poland, because this trade is the subject of increasingly controversial public debate. Nevertheless, food and accessory products for dogs constitute the most successful segment, closely followed by cat products. In contrast to other European countries, the garden pond segment is substantially under-represented, but is developing in small stages. A special feature of the Kakadu stores is the wide range of products for anglers, extending from simple fishing tackle and equipment to outboard motors for fishing boats.
Big plans
The country’s capital Warsaw currently boasts the largest number of Kakadu outlets, followed by Wroclaw and Lodz. In the long term, however, the aim is to open Kakadu outlets in all towns of at least 100 000 inhabitants, with a mix respectively of several A, B and C stores. Marceli Ozieblo rules out any expansion into more rural areas, as dogs and cats there are fed primarily on leftovers or home-cooked food and no ready-to-use pet food is sold there.
“In the next five years we will increase the overall number of stores to 70 to 100,” says Marceli Ozieblo. A large proportion of this increase is expected to come from previously independent pet shops and small chains joining the Kakadu system or being taken over. The new stores are also expected to be opened principally in shopping centres and specialist commercial centres. Kakadu’s central office in Zabki awaits the much-heralded competition from the West with equanimity.
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