Wow! What a year

Download: Wow! What a year (PDF file)
Lars Bergkvist, managing director of the Swedish pet specialist chain Arken, announced in PET in Europe that his company aims to open 100 stores by the end of 2010. Not far from the Belgian-French border, David van Kwikenborne opened the speciality aquatics store Au Poisson d?Or in Estaimpuis. The store, with a retail area of nearly 4 000 m², is dedicated to aquatics and garden ponds. Casco Group announced serious plans for expansion into mainland Europe by way of its acquisition of the Korail Group. This acquisition means Casco Group now owns the well-known European brand ?Aquastyl?, a name synonymous with high-class pet and aquatic shop fittings and installations. The pet product show Dezoofa in Wiesbaden will not take place in 2009, the Wirtschaftsgemeinschaft Zoologischer Fachbetriebe (WZF) and the Zentralverband Zoologischer Fachbetriebe (ZZF) have announced. At the end of February, the speciality Dutch cooperative Discus terminated its logistics partnership with its previous partner DKSH. The partners of Discus are now supplied from a 5 000 m² logistics centre in Deventer. The Dutch speciality chains Dobey and Faunaland combined their purchasing operations. Together the two companies operate 175 stores in the Netherlands. By combining their purchasing volume, Faunaland and Dobey aim to strengthen their market position and secure better terms from suppliers. On 1 September, the Swedish wholesaler Dogman acquired Simontorp, a wholesale company specialising in aquatics. Dogman aims thus to expand its range of aquarium products considerably and now regards itself as a leading supplier of such products in Sweden. At the annual meeting of the European Pet Organisation (EPO), Svein A. Fosså (NZB, Norway) was elected new president of the organisation. The board of the organisation also saw changes: Janet Nunn (Pet Care Trust, UK) was elected vice-president, while Norbert Holthenrich (ZZF, Germany) was elected treasurer. Kurt Essmann (WKÖ-Zoofachhandel, Austria) and Alex Ploeg (Dibevo, the Netherlands) were re-elected vice-president and secretary general respectively. Europet Bernina International took over distribution of the ?Astra? aquatics brand in its entirety from 1 July. Lucio Scaratti, general manager of Purina Southern Europe, was unanimously elected new president of FEDIAF. He replaces Hardu Burmester. At the beginning of this year Nicola Vaccari was appointed general director at Ferplast. Nicola Vaccari…