Multi-channel retailer Pets United LLC this month will launch Bird.com, the latest in its stable of e-commerce sites dedicated to individual species. Bird.com joins the ranks of Dog.com, Horse.com and Ferret.com. The company also operates PetSupplies.com.
Bird.com is the result of the company’s recent acquisition of PetStockRoom.com, which focused primarily on birds but also included products for other animals, including people. The company is putting the finishing touches on transforming PetStockRoom.com into Bird.com for the April launch.
“Our mission is to become a larger multi-divisional Internet retailer,” says CEO Alex Tabibi. The company will launch another pet site in July, created internally, and is considering more acquisitions, including e-commerce companies outside of the animal kingdom, he adds.
But it’s not just the offerings that are growing at PetsUnited—sales are flying, too. Online sales in 2005 climbed more than 112% to $23.4 million compared with 2004’s $11 million.
It is pretty difficult to grow any faster with everything that’s happening at the company today, says CFO Chris Van Doren. “Managing growth is our biggest challenge,” he states. “When you’re buying companies, integrating them and looking for new distribution centers, it’s overwhelming sometimes. But we’re building a good, solid infrastructure to create a scalable platform that can take us from total sales of $50 million to $100 million and well beyond in three to five years.”
Under different names, the dog and horse businesses started as catalogs 36 and 27 years ago, respectively; they went online eight years ago. Ferret.com launched in October. The company offers cat products on its PetSupplies.com and other sites. However, it cannot secure the domain Cat.com, which is owned by industrial giant Caterpillar.
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