Pet project is growing wings

By ELLEN READ

Twenty-five years ago, Rolf and Helen Jansen borrowed $600 from Helen's father and set up a pet shop.

It turned over $160 a week.

Now there are three, soon to be four, Jansen Pet & Aquatic Centres and plans are afoot to open more.

Rolf, who left his job as an SPCA inspector to go into business, believes the secret to success is to take things slowly and get proper systems in place.

Each Jansen's shop has an operations manual for staff and rigorous staff training schemes are in place - employees must pass exams at the end of their training.

"It hasn't been easy. It's taken a lot of time to get the processes and manuals in place," Helen says.

Rolf says hygiene is also important.

Their staff spend thousands of hours each year cleaning the pet enclosures.

They arrive at 7.30 each morning to prepare for a 9am opening, and cleaning continues all day - a process which has earned the company the highest quality management registration available in New Zealand.

"The days of smelly, stinky pet shops are gone, hopefully," Rolf says.

"Growing the business has been incredibly difficult.

"Most overseas stores have no pets [they just sell pet products] or are small mall stores. What we're doing is bigger and different."

Each store also has a special pet - not for sale - which draws in visitors.

In the Botany Downs shop, this job goes to Spud, the 10kg emperor snapper - who arrived as a 6cm sprat four years ago.

New Zealand's most valuable fish is also in the store, and this one is for sale - a red dragon fish with a $4950 price tag.

Another Jansen's first was having a vet to work with each store, giving the animals regular health checks, and providing care and advice for new owners.

"No other pet stores do this for their pets or their clients, but to us it's an essential part of ongoing animal care," Rolf says.

The couple spend many hours keeping up with the latest news and research in their area and pass this information on to staff.

As part of the expansion plans, the Jansens have set up a board to oversee the company.

Three non-executive directors have joined, bringing outside retail and management expertise.

A management team is also being put in place to allow the Jansens to step back from the day-to-day running of the business, and concentrate on the big picture.

Another part of preparing for expansion is making sure the technical side of the business is organised and efficient.

Rolf says that to make its ambitious expansion plans viable, the company needed a linked computer network to maintain accounting and inventory control and manage point-of-sale transactions.

"We're opening new stores around the country and to do that, we had to have two things: a really sound back-office system to integrate our accounts and inventory with our in-store cash registers, and a very reliable network system to link all the stores together," he says,

Following a recommendation, the company is using Telecom's private office networking product which Rolf says is simple to use and saves money.

It means up to 20 per cent less stock is required and less time is spent on accounts as data from each shop goes straight into the system.

The new store, expected to open later this year, will be another new concept.

Sited next to the Kings Plant Barn at Silverdale, it will bring the overseas model of a combined pet and garden centre to New Zealand.