With one of the biggest ranges of pet supplies and pet products in Australia, Petbarn has been serving the needs of pet-owners and -lovers for nearly a decade. Delivering advice, products, and services to Australian pet-lovers, while introducing smart retailing and strategic growth, has seen this company develop dramatically.
Paul Wilson, co-founder and Executive Director of Petbarn, established the company with friends Jeff David, Glen Richards, and two others in 2005. More recently, Petbarn struck a $338-million deal with Greencross Vets which saw Greencross acquire 100 per cent of Petbarns owner, Mammoth Pet Holdings, in exchange for 52.6 million shares to Mammoth shareholders.
With Greencross founded by friend and partner Glen Richards, who also served on the Petbarn board for eight years, it heralds an exciting change for Petbarn. The merged group has now become one of Australia’s largest pet-care companies, with a total of 224 stores and clinics across Australia and New Zealand.
Despite these successes, Paul hasn’t always been in the pet-care industry first pushing trolleys while studying business at university and then working in the graduate program at Westpac. After realising that banking wasn’t for him, he moved into the oil industry in a sales- and marketing-focused role at Caltex. Paul says it was the start of a very fulfilling career.