Pet Supplies Plus acquired 20 Loyal Companion Pet Stores, to be transformed into 10 Pet Supplies Plus and 10 Wag N’ Wash stores.
Pet Supplies Plus is transforming 20 pet shops in the northeastern United States into 10 Pet Supplies Plus and 10 Wag N’ Wash units.
The franchisor purchased the Loyal Companion Pet Stores from Independent Pet Partners, Loyal Companion’s parent company.
“We’re always looking for good sites,” Pet Supplies Plus CEO Chris Rowland said. “We have a backlog of franchisees that are looking to open up stores. We have 270 deals that are sold that are not open, so we have a lot of people looking to get stores.”
Independent Pet Partners reached out to Pet Supplies Plus earliest this year to see if the franchise was interested in purchasing the stores. The units are located in Massachusetts, Maryland, Virginia, New Hampshire and Maine, and Pet Supplies Plus was looking to grow its presence in New England, Rowland said.
Twelve of the 20 stores are owned by franchisees Caitlin Greene, Ryan Greene and Ray Vigneault. Four of the 12 will be converted to Wag N’ Wash stores and the remaining eight will be Pet Supplies Plus. The franchisee group now has 37 stores under the Pet Supplies Plus umbrella.
Pet Supplies Plus CEO Chris Rowland and two of his companions.
The rest are currently corporate owned, but franchisees, “For all intents and purposes, they’ve already taken over those stores,” Rowland said.
The brand expects stores to re-open in about a month, Rowland said.
Pet Supplies Plus has gained traction in recent years, with more than 660 stores in 41 states, and expects to open another 70 stores by the end of 2023.
“Generally speaking, despite some craziness in the economy, we’re pretty happy with how things are going,” Rowland said.
Adding 10 Wag N’ Wash stores nearly doubles the brand’s unit count, from 14 stores to 24—with about 40 more in the pipeline. Pet Supplies Plus bought the grooming services brand in early 2022, the first acquisition after Franchise Group bought it in 2021.
“We knew that the Wag N’ Wash brand was going to grow pretty quickly,” Rowland said. “The resources are something that we’ve had in place, and we are able to leverage some existing Pet Supplies Plus, both resources and systems, to help with the Wag N’ Wash brand.”