Fressnapf passes the two-billion sales mark

The sales result is broadly similar to that of the previous year, when Europe's leading pet store chain saw 6.4 per cent growth in sales. Sales on a comparable retail area in 2017 increased by 3.4 per cent, however, and were slightly higher than in 2018.
At the company's annual press conference, founder, owner and administrative board chairman Torsten Toeller conceded that implementing Fressnapf's ambitious growth targets has not been easy and probably won't be in the future either: "Due to competition and pressure on margins, the growth of the pet supplies sector is becoming significantly more challenging in all channels."

Outside Germany the Krefeld-based organisation grew much more strongly in 2018 than at home due to a host of new store openings. While the 901 Fressnapf outlets in the domestic market grew by 4 per cent to 1.3 bn euros, the 663 international stores (2017: 573) recorded an increase of 10.1 per cent in sales to 799 mio euros. Poland was the leading market here (19 mio euros/+62.6 per cent), along with France (157 mio euros/+19.7 per cent), Hungary (62 mio euros/+15.6 per cent) and Italy (118 mio euros/+11.2 per cent). Sales on a comparable store area increased abroad by 2.1 per cent and by a substantial 3.2 per cent in the domestic market.
Compared with the previous year, online sales increased by 18 per cent to 90 mio euros, as compared with a rise of 22 per cent in 2017. It is notable, however, that Fressnapf succeeded in increasing its margin by 2.5 percentage points last year. In addition, on the basis of payback data the retail group states that the repurchase quota of its own cross-channel customers increased more than for purely online customers. Fressnapf now operates an online shop not only in Germany, but also in Luxembourg, Denmark and Switzerland, and since October 2018 also in Austria. An online shop will be rolled out in two more countries this year, including Poland.

Strong growth was achieved by the Fressnapf Group in 2018 in terms of the number of stores. As of the end of 2018, there were 1 564 Fressnapf and Maxi-Zoo outlets, 105 more than in the previous year. This big increase in Germany is also attributable to the influx of new franchise partners, who switched to Fressnapf from other systems, primarily Zoo & Co.

As already announced at the…