Driving force behind the sector

Adao Teixeira opened his first shop in Vila Nova de Gaia to the south of Porto 18 years ago. Before that the entrepreneur worked for a Portuguese shopfitting company designing and constructing fittings for pet shops. He realised at the time that pet product retailers made a lot of mistakes when it came to the pet store concept and over the years he developed his own concept. Making the transition from gaining many impressions and acquiring experience to applying these in practice in his own retail chain made sense, therefore. To date, six stores have been opened with a combined retail area of 695 m² and 21 employees: Braga (95 m²), Lousada (140 m²), Valongo (105 m²), Porto (150 m²), Vila Nova de Gaia (105 m²) and Matosinhos (100 m²). There are no store managers; all outlets are run directly by Adao Teixeira. As expected, accessory products and food for all pet categories are the biggest sales drivers at Petlandia. The company imports products itself from Gimborn, Flamingo and Sera and two employees distribute them to the stores from Petlandia’s own warehouse. Everything else comes from Portuguese wholesalers, from whom the individual stores order and receive goods directly. Shopping malls the key to success With the exception of the biggest 150 m² store in Porto, all the shops are located in shopping malls. Adao Teixeira regards this as one of the key elements in the success of his concept. Shopping malls are currently experiencing an upturn in Portugal, bringing the Petlandia outlets a seemingly never-ending flow of new customers. Adao Teixeira has laid his retail areas out accordingly. Enticed by the presentation of dogs and cats, customers are led past shelves of pet food, arriving at the aquariums, small mammals and birds, and then pass accessories and treat products on their way to the check-out. Adao Teixeira considers retail areas of 100 to 150 m² to be ideal, but the size also depends heavily on the structure of the respective shopping mall and on what the lessor is offering, he says. He welcomes the presence of large hypermarkets with their own large pet product departments close to his stores; many customers leave the supermarket with a starter aquarium or a bird cage or small mammal cage and come to him to buy pets and other accessories. The same goes for the dog and cat food segment. The premium products of Royal Canin, Nestlé Purina and Hill’s are top sellers at Petlandia and are growing by 15 per cent a year on average. Adao Texeira’s…