“I am a big fan of omnichannel”

Despite high inflation rates, the pet industry has apparently performed well over the past year. Was this also the case in your company?

Yes, this is our case, too. Even though inflation was high, we managed to increase our turnover, mainly due to the increase in product prices. Our expansion is growing fast, and we have double-digit growth. If you compare the turnover with the earlier prices, our like-for-like would be around zero. Price appreciation has helped us meet our financials.

Which country markets performed particularly well, which less so? What were the reasons for the different developments?  

We have the same turnover development in all countries, but the Czech Republic and Slovakia are slightly better.  

How did your expansion continue in terms of the number of your stores?

Last year we reached 370 stores within the Plačeck. We are planning 50 new stores this year and expansion is underway in all states. We believe it is realistic to meet this target if the developers complete the new retail parks as agreed.

For many pet industry experts, omnichannel is the best and most successful form of retail. How do you implement omni­channel in your company?

I am a big fan of omnichannel, and I believe that one day omni­channel will be the imaginary winner in online and offline. The possibilities that omnichannel holds are endless. For us, it comes across when digitising these processes and implementing new ones. That's why we decided to open a new e-shop platform www.superzoo.cz towards the end of the year, which takes omnichannel into account as much as possible, i.e. connects online and offline in the best possible way.

What do you consider to be the most important current pet trends?

There are more trends, but we see a rather negative trend for us, where customers are trying to buy fewer premium products because of the price. It is a big challenge for us to influence this.

How has the pet industry changed in the post-Covid era in the countries where you are active?

During Covid, one famous trend emerged that would be very good for the pet industry, and that is that the number of pets radically increased. In the post-Covid era this has ceased, and we see the aquarium and terrarium segment declining a bit again.

Some in the pet industry believe that the cat segment performed better than the dog segment last year. In your company, too?

We observe our statistics a little differently here. We see that in our sales the dog segment is growing faster than the cat segment. But we feel that we can still improve in the cat segment, and it is a challenge for us.

Your company is not only active in retail, but also exports a wide range of exclusive pet food brands to a large number of different countries. How is this business going?

Yes, we are not only a retailer, but we also have exports, which are much smaller compared with retail, but they are very important for us. If you compare all the departments, our exports have the highest percentage increase. It is very positive, and we see potential in exports.

Have you noticed a decline in premium products and a shift towards cheaper brands due to the high inflation rate?

Yes, as I mentioned, there is a trend where customers are buying fewer premium products. It is a challenge for us in the future to change this trend.

What plans do you have for your company in this year?

For this year it is very important that we continue with expansion of new pet shops. It was important that we opened our new warehouse at the end of last year, with capacity of 10 000 m². Our total capacity is 25 000 m² of pallet storage. We will enhance the warehouse with a new WMS that will make us more efficient and competitive. We also plan to continue with our project of 24/7 self-service stores.