“We’ve just got to evaluate the brand equity and how it resonates with the customer. We really want to go through that process first just to see what it tells us, and it will give us some clarity once we’ve done that,” said Greenhalgh. “But of course, on some level we do want to harmonise the business.”

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PetO has been shoring up its customer support and management team to adjust for the expansion, which has resulted in a tenfold increase in staff head count from just over 100 to around 1000. PetO’s core range will be introduced to the newly acquired stores, while retaining well-performing product lines that are popular among certain locations or demographics.

Sales of pet treats have been growing well, as well as vitamins and fresh pet food that needs to be refrigerated, such as mince and diced meat.

The pair hopes the acquisition will be completed by July 1. They will use the first 120 days to visit new stores and assess key priorities.

“We’re really quite comfortable and confident we’ll get to the point where we’re crystal clear about what’s ahead of us in phase one, which is about stabilising the business. Phase two will be to harmonise the business,” said Greenhalgh. “The third phase, or the third horizon, is to launch our road to even more growth.”

Greenhalgh, whose role focuses more on people and operations while Rowe oversees store rollouts, product, finance and forecasting, said the acquisition had removed a lot of uncertainty for store staff who had already seen at least one ownership change less than two years ago when acquired by PETstock.

“They’ve gone through quite a lot of turmoil and in a relatively short period of time … People want a sense of belonging, they want to be supported,” he said.

“Pets generate a real emotion in people … Despite all the various crosswinds and all the uncertainty, there was really a raw passion, a lot of smiley faces.”

PETstock, Australia’s second-largest pet retailer with more than 200 stores, was also founded by two brothers, Shane and David Young, from Ballarat. Pet Circle, founded in Sydney in 2011, received a $75 million funding boost last year.