Big in small spaces

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Pets didn’t even feature when the first store premiered in Seville: it was a florist’s shop that was opened in one of the first supermarkets. It was only a year later that ornamental fish and aquatics products were added, with fish accounting for around 80 per cent of sales. When the second store opened in Huelva in 1988, the Hobby-Zoo chain was born. “We now operate 75 outlets throughout Spain, with ten to 15 more opening this year,” says Antonio Castano, general director of Hobby-Zoo. “As well as this, every year two to three existing stores are revamped and sometimes enlarged.” Each branch employs three to seven staff, depending on the size of the retail area and the store’s sales figures. It’s not unusual to find several shops in one town.
Shopping centre offering
The “Hobby Zoo” concept is concentrated in particular on shopping centres. Each store has a retail area of between 60 and 500 m². For Antonio Castano, 175 to 200 m² is the optimum, to be found in a medium-sized shopping centre at the edge of a town and in retail parks. The product range includes a large selection of live animals such as fish, small mammals, rabbits, birds and parrots, plus a small number of reptiles.
The sale of puppies and kittens, a popular feature of pet stores in Spain, is also part of the standard set-up at Hobby-Zoo. Thus Labrador puppies sell for € 720, Boxer puppies for € 775 and Chihuahuas for € 1 250. Ferrets for € 335, Chinchilla rabbits for € 185 and parrots from Loro Parque (Tenerife) for € 1 400 underline Hobby-Zoo’s claim that it only offers for sale healthy pets that have been examined by a vet. On Saturdays – the busiest sales day in most branches – three to four puppies are sold in a day. When it comes to cats, a distinction is drawn between pedigree and crossbreed cats, with a Maine Coon, for example, costing around € 1 100, while crossbreeds cost € 500.
Growth with dogs and cats
In the food and accessories categories, all the popular brands are stocked, from the low end to high-premium products: “Iams” and “Eukanuba” from P&G Pet Care and Hill’s, Affinity and Royal Canin form the focal point of the range. Products and brands that can be obtained from the supermarket are not included, as most Hobby-Zoo shops have a supermarket in their immediate vicinity. Around 60 per cent of sales are achieved with food and accessories, while pets account for 40 per cent. Antonio Castano says that sales of cats make up approx. two…