Online pet supply seller Drs. Foster & Smith acquires Pet Warehouse

Drs. Foster & Smith Inc., catalog and online retailers of supplies for dogs and cats, has acquired Pet Warehouse Inc., a leading direct marketer of supplies for birds, fish and reptiles. Drs. Foster & Smith will be incorporating the Pet Warehouse web site into the DrsFosterSmith.com site.

Sales at Drs. Foster & Smith, based in Rhinelander, WI, will reach $110 million this year; 28% of those occur at DrsFosterSmith.com, a spokesman says. Internet sales this year are double last year’s. Since the high profile pure-play online pet retailers went bust earlier this year, Foster & Smith has set sales records every month, the spokesman says. “They raised the awareness of buying pet supplies online,” he says. “They changed people’s buying habits.”

"Pet Warehouse is a very strong, thriving cataloger that has seen excellent growth during each of its 15 years in business," said Marty Smith, one of the co-owning veterinarians. "Their leadership position in the fish, bird, and other niche categories is a perfect fit for us, since our focus for 17 years has been exclusively on dogs and cats."

The acquisition is expected to add more than $25 million in sales to Drs. Foster & Smith, bringing its combined sales in 2002 to an estimated $150 million.

Drs. Foster & Smith has been on the web for three and a half years.