Expansion to continue

Download:Expansion to continue (PDf file)
In its new 1 800 m² Pet Center store, Gimborn Czechia presents an extensive range of pet food and accessories plus a wide variety of pets in a spacious, attractively designed retail area. Particular attention has been paid to creating a stylish and varied merchandise presentation, which is further enhanced by the “shop-in-shop” displays of prominent suppliers. As well as being Gimborn Czechia’s flagship project, the modern store is used to test out new sales concepts. Boasting 50 stores, Pet Center is the outright leader among pet supplies chains in the Czech Republic. In the last two years in particular, the number of outlets has grown continuously. Having confined its operations almost exclusively to the capital with its population of over 1.3 million for a long time, the company has opened more and more stores in other parts of the country in recent years. And this expansion is set to continue, with five or six additional branches due to open this year. Miroslav Vesel´y, the managing director of Gimborn Czechia, believes the potential exists for opening at least 70 to 80 stores in the country of 10 million inhabitants. Various distribution channels On average, the Pet Center stores stock 4 500 products. A merchandise data management system enables the company to see precisely which products generate sales and which prove to be slow sellers, and it endeavours to achieve constant variety on the shelves to satisfy current consumer demands. Although Gimborn’s own products are an established feature of the range in the Pet Center stores, they are not given preference over other brands. Pet food, and in particular dog food, accounts for roughly 60 per cent of sales. The remaining 40 per cent of the overall sales volume is achieved through sales of accessories and care products. Most stores are located in large, busy shopping centres, of which Prague alone has over 15. 23 of the 50 stores in the chain at present stock live animals, selling birds, fish and small mammals. The smallest Pet Center outlets are the Express shops, and Gimborn operates 25 of these in small towns or smaller-sized shopping malls. They have retail areas of up to 150 m² and stock a basic assortment of pet food and accessory products, but no pets in most cases. The next largest distribution channel is the Classic shop. Gimborn Czechia has opened 23 of these to date, operating on retail areas of approx. 150 m² in size. Two locations, Ostrava and…