“Considerable potential for Pet’s Place and Dierenland”

Klaas Malenstein entered the pet business in 1994 with the takeover of the VNK wholesale company. In the same year he bought Gevo, another wholesaler that was later merged with VNK. In 2000, Malenstein entered into a joint venture with Fred and Rick van der Meer to set up a cash-and-carry wholesaler in Rotterdam. It was a move that made sense: whereas VNK originally only stocked accessory products, the Van der Meer range concentrated exclusively on pet food. The joint venture has succeeded in giving Malenstein a range covering all product groups in the pet trade.
The Malenstein Group headquarters in Nijmegen.
In parallel with his activities in the wholesale sector, Malenstein brought the specialist retail group Pet’s Place with 180 outlets and Dierenland Franchising with over 60 stores into his conglomerate of companies. Added to these are two DierenSuperland stores in Rotterdam and Den Haag, in which Malenstein has holdings of 60 and 100 per cent respectively. Other companies in the group include CINK, which is responsible for central buying and also conducts annual negotiations with the industry on behalf of the whole group, and Petlog, which handles logistics and distribution for the group as a whole. Both companies are wholly owned by De IJsvogel Beheer, which is responsible for the operating business of the Malenstein Group and comes under the umbrella of the Malcon Beheer organisation.      
The Dutch pet trade has good prospects for the future, according to Ard Malenstein
The trade cooperative Faunaland had also come into the Malenstein Group fold originally, having had a 50 per cent stake in the Dierenland franchise operation, like IJsvogel. However, this marriage of unequal partners only lasted until the end of the year, when the alliance collapsed after a few months owing to disagreement regarding a joint managing director of the merged Dierenland/Faunaland and differences of opinion over purchasing and distribution to stores. Since 1 January 2002 Dierenland and Faunaland have again been operating under their own names.
The 16 000 m² logistics centre has 16 different ramps.
Even initial organisational problems with the new logistics centre have not been able to slow the momentum of the Malenstein Group up to now. “We have succeeded in overcoming any teething troubles quickly thanks to the introduction of a new computer system and are now able to deliver to Pet’s Place stores up to three times a week. We are also beginning to deliver goods to Dierenland…