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MONEY TALK
A Little Chain with a Big Bark
Local pet products retailer Pet Pantry Warehouse uses an old-school approach to survive and thrive in the modern age.
At a time when many mom-and-pop and small local chain stores are scaling back or shutting their doors completely, Fairfield- and Westchester County-based Pet Pantry Warehouse is a full-fledged success story. In spite of the lagging economy and with big-box and Internet competitors nipping at its heels, the family-owned pet products retailer is thriving—and expanding.
How are they doing it? A combina- tion of smart financial decisions, dedica- tion to stellar customer service, and a keen eye for finding locations with the right demographics have helped the busi- ness grow steadily since real estate devel- oper Barry Jacobson purchased the origi- nal Greenwich, Connecticut, store from its founder in 1995. Today, Pet Pantry employs about 50 people and boasts Connecticut locations in Greenwich, New Canaan, and Wilton, and Westchester locations in Larchmont and Rye.
After many years as a Pet Pantry customer, Jacobson, now president of
Pet Pantry Warehouse, realized the potential in the market to provide a community-based, pet-nutrition-focused alternative to big-box retailers like Petco and PetSmart. Using private family financing, Jacobson and his sons, Adam Jacobson, executive vice president, and Ari Jacobson, vice president, set about transforming the struggling store from its largely wholesale model—selling pet food to animal shelters, animal hospitals, and veterinarians—to the retail format it now uses in all five locations.
“We created a more modern form of retail where everything our consumers need is on the shelves. That was how we initially transitioned the existing busi- ness into a more profitable endeavor,” explains Adam, who oversees operations and finance for the business.
Adding a large number of ancillary pet products to the mix—everything from leashes and collars to animal apparel, toys, and feeders—also helped boost profitability. The profit margins on these support products tend to be much greater than on food, which accounts
for more than half of all sales company- wide. “Pet food is what brings custom- ers through the doors, but our higher margins come from the ancillary prod- ucts,” Adam says.
Even on the lower-margin pet-food side of the business, Pet Pantry’s focus on healthy, natural, and holistic options means its shelves are stocked with
higher-end foods that command premium prices. The stores offer fresh-frozen raw pet food, freeze-dried and dehydrated
pet foods, as well as specialized options such as limited-ingredient, grain-free,
and low-glycemic foods. Most important, these top-shelf offerings resonate with the demands of Pet Pantry’s customers.
“There has been a humanization
of the pet market. As people become more aware of their own health and well-being, that outlook is coming down the pipeline into pet food,” explains
Ari, who handles purchasing for all Pet Pantry locations. Pet owners want their pets to mirror their own eating patterns, and they are willing to pay extra for more nutritionally complete products for their animals, he adds. It also helps that the company’s locations are in affluent areas where, Ari notes, “we are able to source higher-quality products than can be sold in other demographic areas.”
Adam Jacobson and his brother Ari Jacobson
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