Bunnings is expanding its pet range from a couple of hundred products to close to 1000 products.
๐ Background: We know Bunnings as the enormous hardware retailer with around 375 stores. It also has the greatest snags on earth and created the wide-brimmed hat that Harry Styles made his own.
๐ What happened: Now, Bunnings will expand its pet range from a couple of hundred products to close to 1000 products. Think: chewy toys, treats and leads.
๐ What else: This move makes sense because of the growing pet sector in Australia. But it's also strategic because Wesfarmers (the owner of Bunnings) biggest rival is Woolworths - just so happened to buy a controlling stake of the PETstock chain for $586m last year.
๐ก The pet boom means good things for the big end of town, like Bunnings, but potentially pain for small-time retailers in the space.
๐ก During the pandemic there was a maaaajor pet boom. Dog ownership rose 25 per cent between 2019 and 2022. And the number of pet cats skyrocketed by 43 per cent. In fact, 60% of Australians own at least one pet.
๐ก Given Bunnings already allows pets in their stores, it makes sense to allow customers to buy products for their little pooches too. And the war between Woolworths and Wesfarmers will continue to heat up even further.
โ
Sign up for Flux and join 100,000 members of the Flux family
