Europe on the move

The Dutch fly across to the British Isles on a quick shopping trip, Germans enjoy their holidays on Spanish beaches, Russian companies successfully invest in France: Europe is really on the move as it grows ever more closely together. The launch of the euro is clearly going to strengthen this trend.
Nor is the pet industry being by-passed by such developments. Articles produced by the big manufacturers are already represented in almost every country in the world. The grocery trade as well, which still generates the bulk of pet product sales throughout Europe, has long since made cross-border expansion its main aim. And the specialist pet trade? It still thinks predominantly in local, regional or national dimensions. But for how much longer? The German Fressnapf specialist chain, with its total of more than 400 outlets, already has its own stores in Austria, Switzerland, Luxembourg and Turkey. In the Netherlands, too, the franchise group has negotiated a cooperative agreement with the Jumper chain, allowing it to continue with expansion there. The Animal Planet retail chain has also recently begun operating on a cross-border scale: the company already has over 25 stores in Belgium and France, and further new openings are expected this year too.
Admittedly, so far these companies operating on a cross-border basis are the exception rather than the rule. In many countries within Europe the specialist retail scene is still defined by small shops. However, this is gradually changing. A structural shift has already occurred within the specialist pet trade in many countries of northern and central Europe. In England, Germany, France, Austria, Switzerland and the Benelux countries it is the big chains, some of them quite alien to the sector, which are calling the tunes. In Italy, although transformation of the specialist retail trade is still at an early stage, it will speed up in the next few years. And discernible in eastern Europe as well are the first signs of a far-reaching shift in the specialist pet trade.
Europe is indeed on the move. PET in Europe, the new magazine for the pet sector, has espoused the cause of following these developments in detail. As publishers of pet-Euro-Fachmagazin, the leading trade publication for the German pet sector, we already have a strong reputation within the branch for the professionalism and informative content of our reporting. Our intention is to give our readers sound and up-to-date information about progress in the…