No. 1 in Stockholm

Michael and Suzanne Hulthén had been running traditional pet shops for 20 years when they decided in 2000 to break new ground in Sweden with the opening of Bromma Zoomarknad in a western suburb of Stockholm. It was to be something different: “An outstanding store where we could combine expert knowledge, a broad assortment and competitive prices,” Björn Söderlund, responsible for IT & Marketing, told PET in Europe. Customer service is also an important priority, as demonstrated for example by the free parking area directly adjacent to the store.The entrepreneur estimates the volume of the Swedish pet market at roughly € 400 mio, which is realized chiefly through sales of low-quality dog and cat food in the supermarkets. He puts the average annual sales of a Swedish pet product retailer at around € 0.3 to 0.5 mio. But the development of Bromma Zoomarknad has yielded a different set of figures, with sales amounting to € 1.6 mio in 2003, € 2.1 mio in 2004 and a targeted figure of around € 3 mio for 2005. “The Swedish pet market has been growing at an average of 16 per cent a year since 2000,” Björn Söderlund continues. “At Bromma Zoomarknad we are looking at a better growth rate.” One of the many keys to sales success at Bromma Zoomarknad is perceived to be so-called “smart buying”, or importing large parts of the range directly. This has made it possible to lower many prices by up to 40 per cent while still maintaining a healthy margin. The business has also mastered the modern way of communicating with the customer: although the website serves chiefly as a means of presenting the company to the public and not for selling through an online shop, it has developed into an important tool for generating new customers. Radio advertising is also used, with listeners being invited to try out high-quality dog and cat food, and cat litter. And the results have been dramatic, as Björn Söderlund reports: “Over 3 000 new customers in just a few weeks was something we hadn’t expected!” Enlightening customers regarding the benefits of feeding their pets on high-quality food is considered at Bromma Zoomarknad to be the biggest opportunity for the pet product trade to stabilize and increase sales. It needs to be made clear to pet owners that, although they pay a higher price per kilo, this is offset by the fact that cats and dogs need smaller daily quantities of the food. “We are currently planning to open further larger-format stores,” says Björn Söderlund. “And we’re…