Emphasis on the exotic

As in the other Kölle Zoo stores opened previously, which are all located in the south-west of Germany, animals form the focal point of the new outlet’s 2 800 m² retail area. In fact, the new Kölle Zoo store is more like a zoo than a classic pet store – where else would one find such a wide variety of different creatures for sale? The majority of the several hundred different species on show in the themed store are the product of captive breeding. The aquarium and pond department was particularly impressive – a total of 500 000 l of water an hour is circulated and filtered in the store.Since company founder Kurt Landes launched the first Kölle Zoo in Stuttgart, the concept, which is probably the first of its kind in the world, has been developed carefully and improved from store to store. In 2002 Matthias Pohl acquired the operating business of Kölle Zoo GmbH as managing director. The company has invested the considerable sum of € 1.4 mio in the new store alone, the detailed planning and realisation of which took nearly a year. As in the Kölle Zoos in Heilbronn and Ludwigshafen, the new outlet incorporates a veterinary practice and a dog grooming salon. And many of the superb pet enclosures and elements of the layout seen in Münster are already familiar from the other Kölle Zoo stores: the 65 m2 parrot aviary, a fish and reptile grotto with a capacity of 10 000 l, the koi pond by the entrance, this time divided by a bridge, or the show tank containing black-tipped reef sharks. But Kölle Zoo wouldn’t live up to its reputation as the most creative source of ideas in the German pet supplies business if the new outlet didn’t offer more innovations that give the 2 800 m² store its unmistakable character. These include the imaginatively designed small mammal section, in which an enormous selection of these cuddly creatures is housed in highly individual enclosures. And many new ideas have been implemented to perfection in the reptile department, to better emphasise the fascination of these interesting pets.If the “exotic” aspect featured large in the last new store opened in Heilbronn, then Kölle Zoo in Münster embodies this aspect even more. Backgrounds featuring Maya temple models, artificial trees with plastic snakes curled around branches and emotive murals with bright jungle motifs make this a themed shopping experience par excellence. To get everyone in the right mood, a huge jungle party, heavily advertised beforehand in the Münster area by Kölle Zoo, was…