Target: 100 stores by 2009

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Fressnapf opened its first store in Austria ten years ago, in Wels. Now Europe's leading pet product chain operates 70 stores in the country and is planning to open another 30 stores by 2009. It is also launching a new city-centre concept there. No-one could have guessed back in 1997 that Austria would become Fressnapf's most successful market outside Germany. At that time the higher property prices there compared with Germany were causing the company a few headaches, and Fressnapf thus proceeded cautiously with its Austrian market launch, opening its first store in a former garage. Although not particularly attractive, the lease price made it affordable, remembers Heidi Obermeier, managing director of Fressnapf Österreich. Fressnapf's second outlet wasn't exactly a flagship store either, opening on a retail area of just 260 m² - way below the average size of a Fressnapf store. 22 stores in 14 months It was only when it became clear that the concept was well received in Austria that the company continued rather more boldly with its expansion plans, says Heidi Obermeier. The high point was in 2002 and 2003, when the number of stores increased from 18 to 40 in just 14 months. Fressnapf now operates 70 stores in Austria, and this year eight further new openings are in the pipeline: four in Vienna (in the 3rd, 14th, 15th and 19th district) and one each in Pasching, Sittal, Lienz and Rankweil. The opening of this first branch in Vorarlberg will mean that the company is represented in all federal states. In the last four years the number of stores between 300 and 1 000 m² in size has doubled. At the end of the last financial year, Fressnapf Österreich returned sales figures of € 53 mio, equivalent to an increase of 32 per cent compared with the previous year. "In Austria we have the most modern network of stores of all the countries in which we operate. Nowhere do we achieve higher sales per store," Fressnapf boss Torsten Toeller was pleased to announce. He puts the company's huge success in Austria down to the greater propensity of Austrian pet owners to consume compared with those in other countries, and also to weaker competition. New city-centre concept Fressnapf estimates that it currently has a market share of 16 to 17 per cent in Austria. The company wants to increase this to around 20 per cent in the next few years. In the speciality trade it puts its market share at 40 to 45 per cent. "We will soon reach…