Ambitious targets for anniversary year

Europe's leading pet store chain Fressnapf grew more strongly abroad than at home in 2014. The company's sales outside Germany rose by 12.3 per cent to € 615 mio, while sales by the chain in the domestic market increased by 4.1 per cent to € 1.053 bn. Fressnapf's overall sales grew by 7 per cent to € 1.668 bn compared with 2013. The retail company intends to grow further this year with strong anniversary campaigns aimed at achieving an above-average increase in sales, above all in Germany. A sales boost of 6.3 per cent is being targeted in Germany and of 8.4 per cent abroad for 2015. 
50 new stores
Fressnapf intends to open around 50 new stores this year. Twelve of these will be in Germany, while 38 new stores are scheduled to open in other countries. As was stated at Fressnapf's annual press conference in Krefeld, the retail company aims to push ahead rapidly with expansion in Poland in particular, where it currently operates six stores.
As well as opening new stores, Fressnapf attaches great importance to modernising existing outlets. The company has formulated its so-called "future store concept" for this purpose, and this is being implemented stage by stage across Europe. In Germany, 533 of the 830 Fressnapf stores are up to date. This is also the case with regard to 325 of the company's foreign stores. The figures do not include the 28 Mega Zoo/Kölle Zoo stores.

Concentrating on profitable growth
The impression was given at the annual press conference that the days of unlimited expansion at Fressnapf were over, and that the pet store chain was aiming instead for profitable growth at home and abroad above all. Fressnapf boss Torsten Toellerunderlined the fact that the company was already well positioned in this regard with reference to a study that focused on the profitability of international publicly listed retailers over a number of years. According to this, Fressnapf was one of the few companies with an EBITDA margin of over 8 per cent. It was made clear that expansion to other countries is not planned for the time being. "We still have potential for new stores in the countries in which Fressnapf already operates," explained managing director Marc Lukies. For the future Fressnapf thus envisages up to 2 300 stores in the twelve countries in…