PRESS RELEASE – A small pet-supply retailer with two locations in the Twin Cities is set for a rapid U.S. expansion with the help of a customer who’s a franchising veteran.
Pet Evolution – currently with stores in Woodbury and Arden Hills – started franchising the concept earlier this year and has already awarded seven regional developments to five investors and nine licenses to franchisees in Minnesota.
“We’re exploding, and that’s really rapid growth in a short period of time,” Pet Evolution Franchising President Peter Carlson said.
Carlson initially became a Pet Evolution customer four years ago when his groomer moved to the Woodbury store from PetSmart. When he walked in the door, he said it “looked, felt, tasted” and was branded like a franchise but learned it was locally owned. He was really sold on the Pet Evolution brand two years later when staff helped
him figure out a new diet for his standard poodle, Leo, solving his digestive and allergy issues.
Though they had declined previous offers to franchise, Carlson convinced Pet Evolution founders Rian Thiele and Mike Osborn to let him lead the charge, since he intimately knows the brand and has 20 years of experience as a franchise consultant and franchisee.
Carlson was part of a regional development team for Massage Envy in the Chicago area, which established 47 stores with an average unit volume of $1.3 million, and for Amazing Lash Studio in Illinois and Indiana. A few of his former partners and franchisees in those businesses have now signed on to Pet Evolution.
Over the next few years, dozens of Pet Evolution stores could pop up in Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Arizona, Texas and Florida. The first four of the new stores in Minnesota will be located in St. Paul, Edina, St. Louis Park and St. Cloud.
The five-year goal is 150 to 200 Pet Evolution stores across the United States, according to Carlson, who anticipates awarding more regions and having about a dozen of the franchise stores open by this time next year.
Carlson thinks Pet Evolution is well-positioned for that kind of “explosive” growth because of the team’s prior franchise experience and the trajectory of the pet industry.
While most brick-and-mortar retail has struggled throughout the coronavirus pandemic, pet supply stores have thrived, at least partly due to the large number of people who’ve adopted cats and dogs since they’re spending more time at home.
Pet Evolution faces some stiff competition from other national and local pet stores, but Carlson believes what gives the brand an edge is its commitment to the customer experience, focus on all-natural food, membership program and range of services, including “best-in-class grooming,” self-serve dog wash, teeth and ear cleaning, mobile
nail trimming and pet food delivery services.
“We take the customer by the hand, and we come up with the solution that best fits that dog’s needs,” Carlson said
Source: bizjournals.com