Pet Valu Acquires Jack¡¯s Pets Retail Chain

Canadian pet retailer Pet Valu has acquired the 32-store Jack’s Pets chain, as well as its online pet product outlet, petsolutions.com. Financial details of the transaction were not disclosed.

“We are excited to be able to work with the people at Jack’s Pets and PetSolutions,” said Tom McNeely, CEO of Markham, Ontario-based Pet Valu. “Our pet specialty business in the USA has more than tripled in the past five years, and we see Jack’s Pets as a key part of ensuring that we continue that pace of growth.”

The company—which currently operates more than 620 stores in North America, including 200 stores in the Midwestern and Mid-Atlantic United States—plans to renovate and re-brand the Jack’s Pets locations as Pet Valu stores over the next 18 to 24 months. It will maintain the Jack’s distribution center and office in Dayton, Ohio, which will serve as the company’s Midwestern regional office.

As part of the transaction, Scott Brenner, CEO of Jack’s Pets, will join Pet Valu as vice president of Midwest operations. Chris Brenner, vice president of PetSolutions.com, will continue on with his responsibilities for the retail website, which will continue to operate under the PetSolutions brand.

“It is important to note that the entire Jack’s organization, including Scott and Chris, will remain with us and grow with us,” said Joe Dent, vice president, U.S. general manager at Pet Valu. “We are really excited about the partnership.”

According to Brenner, the acquisition arms his established team with valuable resources. “Jack’s Pets and PetSolutions had a record sales year in 2014,” he said. “However, we always look for ways to better serve our customers and to accelerate our growth strategies. Chris and I decided that the best way to achieve this was to partner with Pet Valu. We will be able to grow faster and provide our staff and management with more opportunities with Pet Valu. We are excited to become part of the Pet Valu team and continue our growth along with them.

“We plan on expanding within the whole Midwest region, which includes Ohio, Kentucky, Indiana, Michigan, West Virginia and Pennsylvania,” he said. “Our goal is to take the company from 32 stores to up over 100 stores in the Midwest over the next couple of years.”