Animal magic as Pets boss wows peers
THE boss of North West retailer Pets at Home – which is preparing for a Stock Market float – shared the secrets of its success with peers and advisers last night.
In a passionate and articulate insight Matt Davies told Deloitte’s North West Retail Dinner that three key strategies had underpinned Handforth-based Pets at Home’s success – brand, product and people.
The former corporate financier recalled how it was by pure chance that he had joined the business – he had been about to join PC World Business as finance director – when he bumped into company founder Anthony Preston in Hale one Saturday.
“Having gone out to buy a loaf of bread the next thing I knew we were back at my house having a coffee and a chat. Then I met the senior director of 3i – who was the backer at the time.
“The next morning I had an offer letter for the role of finance director and it’s the best decision I ever made. Pets at Home is an absolutely amazing business.”
Founded in 1991 Pets at Home now has 250 stores. Turnover last year was £400m and EBITDA was £70m.
Private equity owner Bridgepoint is looking for an exit after six years and the business is likely to float next year. It has appointed City broker JP Morgan Cazenove to lead the process.
Mr Davies said there was scope in the UK for at least another 200 Pets at Home stores.
He said his aim is to “make pet ownership synonymous with Pet at Home in the same way as the Halfords brand is with car repairs.”
Constantly investing in new products and valuing each member of staff as if they were a senior manager had been crucial, he added. Staff turnover in the last decade has been cut from 75% to less than 20%.
“When anyone says they want to leave us we get the regional manager to call them to find out why.
“Maybe their hours aren’t right for them, but we try and address any problems and we do manage to keep a good number of people and keep the knowledge of the business in the business.”
Mr Davies said is a “massive fan of private equity” – but that certain ground rules had to be followed for a successful relationship.
“There has to be 100% agreement on strategy and there can only be one captain steering the ship. I am the captain and Bridgepoint is the admiral.”
As CEO he said his biggest success had been to “build an amazing team” around him and create an environment for their talents to shine.
“You cannot allow egos – they are totally disruptive. One of my colleagues said to me: ‘We take our jobs seriously but we don’t take ourselves seriously”, and that’s absolutely right.”
Looking ahead, as well as new store openings, Mr Davies said Pets at Home had just launched a new website and was investing to “bring the brand to life online”.
Around 150 people attended the dinner at the Radisson Edwardian Hotel, where the results of Deloitte’s retail survey were showcased.
Partner Sharon Fraser said in general the last year had been “horrendous” for the sector, but some North West retailers such as Co-operative Group, N Brown, Matalan and JD Sports Fashion had defied the gloom.
Among the guests were: former JJB Sports chief executive Tom Knight; Alan White of N Brown Group; Peter Cowgill of JD Sports Fashion; George Foster of Original Factory Shop and Richard Whiting of NWF.
Leading figures from North West finance and private equity included Dave Allanson from Lloyds Banking Group, Michael Hartig from Barclays; Ray Stenton from LDC, Warwick Ley from Endless, Simon Lord from Altium and Steve O’Hare from Barclays Private Equity.
