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Pets Corner

Pets Corner UK Ltd.
Private limited company
Industry Retail
Founded Haywards Heath, United Kingdom (1968)
Founder Mark and Sandra Richmond
Headquarters Crawley, West Sussex, United Kingdom
Area served
United Kingdom
Key people
Dean Richmond
Steven Charman
Iain Dougal
Products Pet supplies
Number of employees
approx. 600
Website petscorner.co.uk

Pets Corner UK Ltd is a United Kingdom based pet retail store chain. Its main area of business is selling specialist pet foods, accessories and treatments predominantly for dogs and cats, but also for small animals, reptiles, birds, wildlife and tropical and cold water fish.

The company's headquarters is in Crawley, West Sussex, United Kingdom. It has 112 stores across the UK. In April 2016 the company acquired competitor retailer PamPurredPets adding an additional 51 stores to its existing portfolio, making it the second largest pet retailer in the UK by store numbers and EBITDA.

Pets Corner began in 1968 when Mark and Sandra Richmond, (parents of the present Managing Director Dean), bought a small shop in Haywards Heath, Sussex. Both had worked in farming and had owned many pets.

The shop grew very quickly and was relocated to South Road where it traded until 2011, before it was moved to its current, much bigger store on Wivelsfield Road. In 1983 a second store was opened in George Street, Hove and this too enjoyed rapid growth.

In 1992 a new garden centre concept store was opened in Brighton and during this time many of the company’s current sales techniques were developed.

IT began to be used prevalently at this point with systems streamlining processes and EPOS. Pets Corner committed to being as efficient as possible to allow its specialist staff to focus on helping customers rather than administrative tasks.

In 1998 Dean Richmond bought the business, [which at the time comprised seven shops], from his parents.

In 1999, with the agreement of Country Gardens’ CEO Nicholas Marshall, Pets Corner began opening garden centre concessions. In 2000, Country Gardens was bought by Wyevale and the expansion of Pets Corner garden centre concessions was temporarily halted. However, in 2008 when Nicholas Marshall became CEO of Wyevale, expansion of Pets Corner concessions into Wyevale garden centres (now The Garden Centre Group) was quickly resumed.

As a result, between 2000 and 2008, 21 stores opened and three independent pet shops were acquired. Breaking away from garden centre concessions marked a new era for Pets Corner stores. The first standalone store was opened in West Hove in 2007 and in 2009 the Bournemouth standalone store was acquired and part let to The Pet Practice Veterinary Surgery.

In 2004 the first warehouse was opened in a former chicken shed measuring 2,000sq ft. utilising EPOS and supply chain systems.

The business currently operates from two warehouses in Crawley totalling 28,000sq ft. and is looking to build a new BREAM rated outstanding HQ and distribution centre in Sussex totalling 60,000sq ft.


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