Biggest pet store in the world

Norbert Zajac, the proprietor of the company, started out 29 years ago with a small speciality shop. Now he owns a pet product company that is known the world over and employs 180 staff. But success didn’t fall into Zajac’s lap; it was hard won, sometimes in the face of stiff resistance from a large part of the industry. Setting up a well-known mail order business for pet products, numerous specialist shows for pet lovers and now opening the world’s biggest pet product store: Zoo Zajac has had an impact on the sector as well as getting some new features off the ground.
Covering 6,000 m², Zoo Zajac is the world’s biggest pet store.
Norbert Zajac says he has fulfilled the dream of a lifetime with the opening of his new store, having invested over 3 mio E in the project. The workforce has increased in size from 140 to 180, more than 60 of whom are trained pet specialists. And good staff are essential in this store, which is very similar to a zoo, with around 270,000 animals presented in splendid display housings. These have to be cared for on a daily basis, calling for excellent specialist knowledge.
“The new store is a mixture of Disneyland, kids’ zoo, pet store and exhibition”, enthuses Zajac. Although there was considerable scepticism in the industry for some time regarding his new business idea, virtually none was expressed when the store opened. 400 suppliers have made it onto the shelves of the store with their products, and the waiting list of companies eager to join them is pretty long, says Zajac.
  
The marine aquariums occupy a broad expanse.
40 firms have taken the opportunity to fit out set areas assigned to them as attractively as possible in their own style, and most of the new occupants have dug deep into their reserves of creativity to come up with an imaginative layout. Special mention should be made of the shopfitting company Müller + Pfleger, a member of the Eheim Group, which constructed all the animal sales display units in the store. Other individual presentations worthy of note are those by Tetra, Sera, Dennerle, JBL, Hagen, Gimborn, Karlie and Masterfoods.
 “Magnificent” would be a justified term to use when describing the high quality standard of the animal display units and the fish, reptiles, small mammals and birds contained therein. The 1,000 or so freshwater and marine aquariums hold a quarter of a million common and rarer fish species to admire, which radiate health. The aquariums were already up and running six to eight weeks prior…