Focusing on the international stage

In most countries around the world, pet supplies retailers are under huge pressure to increase sales and become more efficient without neglecting animal welfare or failing to follow the animal protection directives that are in force. The economic crisis of the last few years has been anything but conducive to their development. “Our customers seem to have handled the economic crisis very well, with the vast majority reporting increases in sales and profits, but at smaller percentages than they were seeing 10 years ago,” reports Matthew Bubear, CEO of Casco Europe.
Responding to the challenges of the international market for shopfittings in the pet supplies business, Matthew Bubear says “Making sure we understand and interpret each country’s regulations on keeping pets so that we can ensure our equipment always exceeds those standards is number one, then of course logistics, languages and different time zones.”
In its domestic market in the UK, Casco Europe caters primarily to the major pet supplies chains such as PetSmart and the fish specialists Maidenhead Aquatics. Its biggest customer base in Europe is in France, including the French colonial states, and in Portugal. Enquiries from the Nordic countries have increased significantly recently, however. Casco Europe is also now reporting strong expansion in the USA and Australia.

Casco Europe specialises in developing and manufacturing only pet and aquatic shop fixtures. In this way, the company is very focused on the trends within this niche market and on the needs of the customers. “The truth is that our competitors all have a consumer product line that they manufacture along with the shopfitting equipment, and this takes away some of their attention and focus on developments,” says Matthew Bubear. He states that “Casco is known to innovate and I strongly believe it is one of the key factors in our ongoing success.”
With this specialisation it is evident that the company is meeting the requirements of its customers. A typical feature of the customers is that they are all in the pet and aquatics business. They can range from small independent stores that want one rack of equipment all the way to large multiple chain stores with more than 1 000 shops.
Production takes…