Pets at Home to open a new store at Fort Kinnaird

Pets at Home is investing more than £700,000 in a new store at the Fort Kinnaird Retail Park, which will open on 2 December, providing 17 new jobs for the local area.

The store will offer thousands of dedicated pet products for local dogs, cats, small animals, reptiles, chicken, birds, fish and wildlife. There will also be a Groom Room and a Companion Care vet surgery.

The company, founded in 1991, has more than 300 sites across the UK employing more than 5,200 people. It was recently named a Sunday Times Top 100 Employer and was the winner of the Retail Week magazine ‘Speciality Retailer of the Year Award 2010’.

Pets at Home is committed to recruiting from the local area and applicants go through a number of stages to assess their compatibility for the role. It puts animal welfare at the heart of its business, which is why it believes in employing pet lovers to serve pet lovers. Around 88% of Pets at Home employees nationwide own a pet.

The company also invests in the career development of its employees, giving colleagues the option to gain specialist qualifications in pet care. Many have worked for the company for more than 10 years. 

Store manager Annie Campbell has been with Pets at Home for more than three years. During this time, Annie has received regular training in pet care, before taking part in the Pet Store Management programme to become a store manager. She is the proud owner of two cats, Honey and Lucy.
 
Annie and her team have been busy undergoing special training to further develop their pet care expertise ahead of the store opening.

She said: “I love my job and working with pets. We are all passionate about pets and that is evident to everyone who visits a Pets at Home store. Everyday brings new challenges and it’s never the same two days running. I enjoy interacting with customers and giving them the help and advice they need. Thanks to Pets at Home, I am fully qualified to advise on all types of pets from rabbits and guinea pigs to reptiles, fish and even chinchillas!”

Annie added: “I’m delighted to be opening our new store at Fort Kinnaird. The new store will offer everything a pet owner could wish for, all under one roof. We will provide plenty of advice and ideas for customers and we welcome pets of all shapes and sizes.

“We will also have a Groom Room, offering full grooming, bath and blow dry, puppy grooming, nail clipping and micro chipping, which are all important to a pet’s health and wellbeing.”

A Companion Care vet surgery will house a full operating theatre, digital X-ray facilities, in-house laboratory and a hospital ward providing a full range of treatments from health checks to emergency operations.

Pets at Home is also committed to the local pet community and is actively looking for pet charities which it can support in the area through its Support Adoption For Pets charity. In the past 12 months, Support Adoption For Pets has raised more than £1.3 million. The charity helped more than 400 re-homing centres and animal welfare organisations in the UK during 2010.