In the latest episode of The Retail Tea Break podcast, I’m joined by a guest who has always had an eye on what’s coming next and exciting ambitions for growth.
Anthony Gallagher, Founder and Managing Director of Petstop. Having started out as a trainee with Penneys, Anthony has since gone to set up one the first pet superstores in Ireland.
This experienced retailer took note of what pet stores across the pond were doing to develop his own successful business model. This is an honest, heartwarming conversation full of great retail stories and examples! So grab your cup of tea, sit back and listen in…
Topics:
New store openings
Why physical stores so important for Petstop
Award winning online presence
How the online strategy changed over the last few years
You can listen back to previous Retail Tea Break podcast episodes on your favorite podcast platform, or of course on YouTube. And while you're there, please do subscribe to the podcast so that you get to listen to it first every week. So in the meantime, grab that cup of tea, sit back and listen in to season six of the Retail Tea Break podcast.
Today I'm joined by a guest who has always had an eye on what's coming next and exciting ambitions for growth. Having started out as a trainee with Penney's, today's guests have since gone on to set up one of the first pet superstores here in Ireland. This experienced retailer took note of what pet stores across the pond were doing to develop his own successful business model.
However, it was thanks to a conversation with his daughter, who happened to be living in China, that propelled today's guest to buy huge amounts of stock to be prepared for logistics channels. And then the world shut down. Anthony Gallagher, founder and MD of PetStop, welcome to the Retail Tea Break podcast.
Melissa, thank you very much for having me. I'm honored to be your guest today.
Oh, I'm really thrilled that we get to have this conversation. You're running a multi award winning business, one I shop in myself for our dog. So I'm thrilled to find out a bit more about it. But before we start in the age old tradition of the Retail Tea Break podcast, in the time that it takes to boil a kettle, which I am told is about two minutes, Anthony, tell us a little bit more about you, your background in retail and a bit more about the business.
So I was born in Sligo, the youngest of 10 children, and, uh, very happy childhood, you know, went to Summerhill college. And when I was trying to sort of graduate from Summerhill, my intention was to go to university in Limerick, which was NIHE Limerick at the time, through marketing, but, you know, money was tight, so I decided to take a year out, try and save some money to help with the fees and the accommodation, etc.
And, uh, I worked abroad in France, picking grapes firstly. And then I came back in, in December, and, I put my name down with Manpower, which was Fas, who are Solace now, and they needed somebody to sweep the floor in Penney's, before Penney's store opened. So I got a job sweeping the floor, got on very well with David Latham, who was the store manager. Tim O'Keefe, who was the controller for Ireland and, and they asked me would like to join the management training program in Penney's. So now I'm in the retail business and that was 33, 34, 35 years ago. And, uh, yeah, still happily here. In fact, 40 years ago, sorry, I tell a lie 40 years ago.
Good grief. The amount of phenomenal retailers coming out of Penney's at that time who are still knocking around in the business, who are leading, I think, the retail business across Ireland right now.
It's unbelievable, Anthony.
I mean, look, you look at some people that worked with me, you know, I mean, John Lyttle, who I'm meeting next week, who's the chief executive of Boohoo, uh, other guys, you know, that are leading businesses in the U S in, you know, in Europe. Yeah. Phenomenally successful, great training ground, great people. And you know, hard work, hard, hard work, but great fun. I mean, honestly, great fun. And I mean,
That's, that's what retail, I think in its essence, Anthony is, is exactly what it's about. And by the sounds of it and the conversations we've had, that's still what you want in business.
Yeah, I mean, look, I can't take myself seriously.
Anybody that knows me will know that, you know, and I think my, I probably frustrate my staff terribly because, you know, I like to have a bit of fun. We got to get the job done. We got to get the work done. But I like to have a chat. I like to have a bit of crack, you know, a bit of fun, you know, and still get everything done.
And that's the ethos behind Petstop. It is about, you know, As we say happy pets happy people you know you know so if we can make sure that that's that's what we live you know that's the secret sauce that's what really you know you can be too serious about things there's no need to be. You need to get the job done you need to have good people working alongside you need to have a you know a sort of joint mission that we're all bought into the same thing, and if people are working out you need to set them free it's simple as that you know if they're not gonna, gel in with the rest of the you know the business and and the other colleagues that they have, we need to set them free, really, that's what we do.
I love that. And I'm definitely going to come back to this people aspect, because I think you, you have a really special kind of outlook on your people, and I know they're very special to your business there in Petstop.
But look, only a few weeks ago, you opened a brand new store, congratulations there in Wexford. It looks absolutely stunning from the photos and the videos I've seen. I'll definitely get down over the next few weeks.
Physical stores are, do you know what, there are very few retailers starting to open new stores. And of course, some will say, Oh, the physical store is dead. Now you and I know that's absolutely not true. Why are physical stores so important for your brand?
I mean, it's, it's, you know, it's where the rubber hits the road, you know, for us, that's where we get to meet customers, talk to them. And, you know, the physical store, while online is 25 percent of our business, and we're the largest online pet retail in Ireland by, you know, a landmark.
But it is, you know, if you look at any of the Retailers across the globe that are successful. It is the ones that are, you know, that really invest in their mixed bricks and mortar business. It's the ones that you know, look at what's happening. What's coming down the road. Look at Penney's. They don't have an online presence in, you know, they're globally flying. I mean, they're doing phenomenally well in the U S, phenomenally well in Europe, the UK and Ireland, you know, and lots of other retailers that are investing in physical stores, I think, you know, there's been a lot of bad press, I think about physical retail and I think it's a lot of it has to do with private equity companies come in, buying them up, asset stripping them, not investing in them, selling them on in five to seven years time, somebody else coming in and doing exactly the same.
Yeah, but where the businesses like the likes of Selfridges, you know, who the Weston family bought and, you know, nurtured and moved on, you know, the really good retailers are the ones that have, you know, somebody that, Is really invested in them that loves the retail game and, you know, sees a long term, long term future in it because it is, it's, you know, retail is here to stay, it's never going away.
No, I agree with you there. And gosh, you've said something there, which I think was really honest with you because not many retailers, not many retailers want to talk about the fact that so many businesses, retail businesses have been bought out now. They're literally being stripped of their assets, whether that's, you know, shops not being painted, fixes and fittings not been kind of fixed up or replaced, stock not just stock not being brought in fast enough, but you're doing the complete opposite there. You know, you're, you're literally investing in stores. You've obviously opened this brand new location as well. It sounds like physical and we'll definitely talk about your online presence cause we know how special that is for PetStop. But physical stores for you seem to be really where you meet your customers.
It is, I mean, you know, , I visit all the stores in Dublin, Kildare, , Wicklow, you know, every, every week, and then down the country every two to three weeks, so I'm in every store at least every three weeks at the maximum, and I will, you know, we have 240 staff, do I know every single one of them by name? No, but I would know most of them, you know, I would know most of them, and I mean, the proud You know, the proud fact for me is that, you know, I have staff that are with me, Shirley, Suzanne were with me, you know, 28 years and their children are working in the business, you know what I mean? So it's multi generational. And it is all about having good people because I'm one person, you know, customers don't know me, thanks be to God. Cause I'd scared him away if they did, but, but, you know, so it is, it is all about, you know, the DNA of the business and you know, we're lucky in that the latest store is open. And to be honest With you, it's our first real go at a high street location. And it's got off to a phenomenal start. I mean, way, way, way above our expectations, to be honest with you.
That's phenomenal, Anthony. It really is. But I think there's something quite interesting in that, that not only have you tried a new model, because again, a lot of us are used to you being, you know, slightly bigger stores, maybe slightly outside town where you pull up and park. But as you said, Wexford's so special that you can actually, you know, drive and park or walk as an awful lot of people do around that main street in that town. And it's like old school shopping, as you said, you're popping in for your groceries, you're popping in for, you know, your pint of milk, you can run in and get your dog something. It's that old school vibe I think Wexford is amazing at, that it's true retail, it's true shopping, it's that bringing the community together, which, you know, we do lose a lot of the times now when we're opening different formats, but it's interesting. Was it a difficult decision for you to make to try that new format in that high street area?
Not really, because I knew Wexford well. I opened Penney's store in Wexford, I can't remember how many years ago, but a long, long time ago, 35, 36 years ago. And so I knew Wexford well, and I always liked the town. So when, when the unit came up, which was a former Iceland unit, I thought, okay, look, Yeah, if we're going to try this format in any sort of high street, this is the location. And thankfully we got it right. I mean, you know, the, you know, the old adage is location, location, location, and it's definitely worked for us there, you know, absolutely 100%.
Again, I think that comes from you knowing Your customer, you know that your team would pull it off, but also, and your story really speaks to this, you're never afraid to try something new, but for you, it sounds like a really well thought out, calculated risk to do this. And of course, if you said, you know, only a few weeks open and it is really paying off.
Well, look, I'd love to tell you that we, you know, we do a lot of data analytics. We do look at our customers. We look at spend. We look at, you know, how much footage linear footage we give to each sector of the store, you know, what the contribution like from a, from a sales point of view, from a, you know, from a margin point of view. So we do do that, but a lot of it as well as gut feeling, I mean, We didn't do any major sort of demographic analysis on Wexford, but I just thought this is going to work, you know, and, you know, thankfully we're proven right.
And we do, you know, because, you know, I'm very lucky because it's, you know, it's a family business, we can make decisions quickly. You know, we don't have to go through any major due diligence. If I think it's the right thing to do with my staff, with my colleagues. Then we'll do it, but I, but I will be led by them as well. I mean, I come up with some crazy ideas and look, you know, they're, you know, they're good enough to slap me down and say, right, okay, you're not doing that, forget about it. But they will let me do some other things as well. So it's good.
But I love the fact that that trust is there. And again, I think with some retailers, it isn't, you know, your people are very much part of your story and of Petstop's story. You know, it isn't just about you, as you said. And it isn't just about the product or the location. It sounds like your people though, for you personally are definitely your biggest success story. Training, minding them, the growth in the company. How do you look after your people?
Oh, you know, it, it is, you know, it's a two way street. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, as I said to you, I have people that have worked with me for 28 years, 27 years, 26, 25. Keep going down right so they are members of my family you know they have my children and none who are working with me at the moment in the business, one guy who is threatening to join us in a few years time, you know but they've all grown up with with my my colleagues there, you know, they, you know, if I was stuck, you know, and I needed somebody to collect somebody from school for me or whatever, if I had the kids, then, you know, they would, do it for me if they needed something done. So it is a very, we have a very flat organization. And, you know, I like to think the way it works is it's from the bottom up. They tell me what to do and I just do it. But we look after them, you know, in terms of if there's ever any, you know, we have a sort of open medical policy. If anybody needs any help from, from a medical point of view, we pay the expenses. If somebody is stuck for a few quid, we look after them. You know, if they need, whatever they need, like it's, they're like family members. You know, so there, within reason, there's nothing we won't do for them, and it's vice versa. So works both ways.
And again, I think there's something really traditional about that. It certainly was the way when I started out in retail, and I'm sure it definitely was for you, that, you know, you give a little, you get a little. And actually, if everyone's happy in the workplace, Not only does the business succeed, not only do sales come flooding in, but of course the customers see it.
They, they feel that atmosphere coming into stores. And I've absolutely no doubt that that's, you know, a massive part of your success is your people are very loyal. They're very happy and customers see that.
Yeah. I mean, look, you know, it's like everything, you know, Retail is not rocket science you know it's about doing simple things well you know paying attention to detail retailers detail it is, no but you know if you have i've gone into plenty of stores i mean i've gone into cafes and what i walked out because the service has been atrocious it drives me crazy. You know, if I'm not being looked after, you know, one of the rules when I worked in Penney's was if there's more than two people in a queue, the rule from Arthur Ryan, the chairman was, you get another tail open, you get those people served, get them out the door. You know, I was in a coffee shop recently, with a friend of mine, Dan Ryan, another retailer, used to work for me and Penney's and we walked in and, you know, there's one girl on a till trying to take an order, three or four people in a queue in front of us, three people down the back chatting, looking up at us, wouldn't come near us, we walked out, you know, like we waited for maybe three or four minutes and we just, look, we'll just go somewhere else, you know, and, I really, I would be upset if that if that happened in our stores, you know, if I'm in the store and I see a customer with a bag of dog food or a bale of hay or whatever, I just pick it up off them and take it, you know, to check it or bring it out for them, but some people don't even realize it. What the hell is this? Does he even work here?
I was in a store, I was in a store in Carrickmines, you know, sort of just after COVID, and there was this lady with a dog, and I had walked in with Shirley, who's my retail operations lady, and, um, Hey we're just dressed as we are now we didn't have any uniform on, and this woman looking at dog food and i started telling you so look i started giving her a bit of advice, she had her dog with her and we were walking around the store as we do open down every aisle looking, and then we got near the end and she's looking more dog food and i went over to her again and she like literally, You know she didn't say get away from me you weirdo yeah you know to get away right so we moved on and then the store manager Maria rang and started bursting out laughing and said, a lady just rang up and said there's two people in this in your store trying to steal my dog off me.
Oh, dear me, I tell you, I'm literally crying with laughter at that story. But isn't that, it's brilliant in one sense. That poor woman freaked out on another. But, but that's, that's traditional retail, Anthony, and we just don't see it. And I suppose I'm, anyone that listens to this podcast knows I bang on about it probably week in, week out.
But Petstop is such a prime example of that. good old fashioned retail. You talk to your customer, you watch them, you listen, but for you as the MD to be on the floor, which is so rare nowadays, you are literally leading from the front, which is so important.
Yeah, but you know, I mean, it's, it's tradition. I mean, when I worked in Penney's, you look at Feargal Quinn you look at the other, I'm not comparing myself to him or anybody else. I'm not getting ahead of myself. Yeah, but what did they do? They visited the stores to saw what was going on, you know, they listen to store managers to sales assistant because, you know, realistically, you know, if you're just listening to the people that surround you and head office or whatever you're getting, you know, one, you know, one tail. Now my, I can honestly tell you, my people give it to me between the eyes, good, bad or indifferent, you know, because they know I'm going to find out anyway. So, and they're better off just getting out, whatever it is, there's never a problem. Let's just put on the table and let's get it sorted, you know, but, you know, it is walking around the stores. It is seeing what customers are putting into their baskets. It is, you know, talking to the staff and asking them, you know, well, what's going on or anything customers looking for that we don't have, you know, I mean, it's, you know, none of it is rocket science, it's just pure common sense. But as somebody always says to me, it's not the common sense. It's not that common. So
No, it's not nowadays. And actually, it then got me thinking, is that why your customers are so loyal? Because you do the basics really, really well. As you said, you listen to them. You were even telling me that you pretty much have a no quibbles return policy because you just you won't do that to your customers.
Yeah, I mean, look, realistically, we serve about 25, 000 to 30, 000 customers a week, depending on the week. So, if you take it, that's, you know, there's generally two and a half towns you know, somebody comes in. So, you've got about 60, 000 people plus coming into your stores every week. Um, out of that, I can honestly tell you that, you know, it is, nil, you couldn't even define it as a percentage, the number of people that would sort of a chancing their arm, ,most people are not. But even if they are i mean it's so few why would you let that tiny tiny minority ruin it for the majority of good people and you know i like we have a situation there in Carrickmines, our former store manager Paula, who was fabulous fabulous lady who worked for us is unfortunately gone back to Brazil. Every time you walked in the door, her smile met you. Didn't matter anything else, she just said to you with this smile, you know, and like, nothing else really matters. As, you know, I always say to people, you know, if you're happy and you smile at people, you'll get away with murder anyway. People will be like okay you know, but she you know she was there and lady come in and spend maybe a hundred fifty two hundred euros on different items and i just happened to be in the store and the lady had called up and said listen when i got home i bought a lead and a collar, but the collar wasn't there wasn't in the bag and Paula and Paula served this lady herself so she went back to the cameras and looked at it and said you know i gave her that lady i said it doesn't matter like it's a five ten euro just send it out to the lady i mean maybe she's lost along the way it doesn't matter send her so she put in the post and then about a week later the lady called up Paula and said i'm really sorry but that that collar was under the dog bed when i lifted it up so. And, you know, I'm so high and she spoke, she, you know, puts some stuff up online about us, like, you know, the, how well she'd been looked after and that was her mistake, but you know, it costs us nothing. We've got a customer for life and how many of our friends has she told about it? You know, and it's simple, it's easy to do. Fighting with customers, arguing about this, that, or the other, why do it like? We have a no quibble money back guarantee on everything.
I love that. And again, it's the really simple things. I think customers appreciate that because it is so rare nowadays, but again, it equals loyalty and, you know, it's what every retailer wants right now is a loyal customer, but you have it in bucket loads because of the way you treat them, but look, I can't let you go, of course, without talking to you about your incredible award winning, we have to say award winning, online presence. You were obviously ahead of your time getting online way back when, has your strategy changed at all in the last few years or are you just going as you are because you seem to have this really nice balance of obviously the physical stores, but also this incredible and impeccable online presence as well.
Well, thank you very much. I know you are a customer so I greatly appreciate it. I really do. I mean, you know, What we like to do or what we try to do is you know make sure that what we're doing offline we're doing online that it's the same, people go on about the omni channel experience but like just whatever doing physically in the store we want to be doing it online as well and that is about you know, we have over 25, 000 reviews on, on a trust pilot. And I can honestly tell you, you know, it has nothing to do with me. I'm not, I did try on one or two occasions to pick orders for customers, right? And I figured out fairly quickly, my son was, both of my sons were working during the pandemic, you know, online helping, and I went in to collect one of them and I said, okay, well, look, I will, you know, I'll give you a hand with five or six orders left to be done, I'll give you a hand to do them. I went off and started picking orders and he said Dad, just leave it honestly because you're going to make twice the work for.. I realize you what I can't pick orders so it is down again to the staff you know we've got a phenomenal team online you know but it's the same ethos but they've all, all of them have come up from the retail floor.
Ah, there's, there's the key then that really is. Cause it's working.
orders a day to:
Fantastic. And you really do. And again, it's really lovely to hear you name drop so many of the team, you know, as you've said, from the beginning of this conversation, that this isn't you, you might be the, the face of the top of the team, but it is a very flat team and I'd say they're all, it sounds like they're very much appreciated, which is lovely to hear. And no doubt the customer does as well. So I think it just shows that by keeping that happy team, by training them, them coming off the shop floor, I'd say makes a huge difference because they know the product, therefore, it is much easier to get online and to sell it in the right way and in the way the customer wants. And as you say, then you get it delivered. It doesn't matter what happens. You get it out there and you keep that customer happy.
e is, you know Online back in:
It absolutely does. You know, I think we as, you know, human beings, we all do make mistakes and I think the customers appreciate when we put our hands up and say, look, didn't go quite right, but we will look after you, which of course you've said you will, which no wonder again leads to having a really happy customer base, which is fantastic.
But look, final question, because we could definitely chat about this all day, what's coming up for you and the brand over the next few months?
So I suppose the, the big thing is that we've just opened Athlone in December, Wexford in March, where a new store in Waterford hopefully sort of the middle to the end of May we're then looking at a new store in Nutgrove depending on how the building work will go and that's probably looking at maybe September something like that and then we're branching out something new because we were in shopping centers were on the high street, we're in retail parks, we have a whole mix, and we're starting in fact in County Mayo with Keans, which is in Claremorris. So we're going to do a first ever shop and shop. They're doing a huge job, a whole lifestyle vibe in Claremorris. You know, families have been there, highly respected, business family, really great vision for the store. And they approached us and, you know, we were quite protective of our brand. So, you know, but we've, we've, you know, decided to do a joint venture with them. So we're going to put a, you know, a big, well, a small Petstop into their big store, a shopping shop, and hopefully fingers crossed it goes well, but they're doing a really, really super job on their business there. And we're thrilled to be invited in as part of it. So watch this space. You know, we might be opening more than we'd see how we get on, but you know, it's very exciting from our point of view.
I have to say very excited for me personally, because I guarantee you as you're coming to Mayo and you're only up the road from me, I will be one of the first to come and see your new shop and shop later in the year. That is fantastic news. But again, I think it just Proves that you're not, you're not happy settled with just one route to market here, that you're really pushing the boundaries because at the end of the day, no matter where you are, you're going to meet the customer. And I think that is fantastic.
Yeah, I mean, you know, as you say, you know, it's, we're lucky we have the luxury of being able to make the decision, you know, you know, and does everything work out? Definitely not, but if not, we'll just change tack, we'll dust ourselves off, learn from it and move on again.
Fantastic. Well, on that note, then, if you've enjoyed today's podcast episode, please, please, please do like and share it. Remember you can also listen back to past Retail Tea Break podcast episodes on your favorite podcast platform, or of course, on YouTube.
Connect with myself and Anthony on LinkedIn, or of course, follow PetStop across social media. And remember, you'll be able to find the show notes and the transcript and all the PetStop details on TheRetailAdvisor.ie. Anthony, thank you so much for your time today.
Melissa, it was a pleasure. An absolute pleasure.
And good luck to everybody out there in retail land.
