“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.