Michele Autore, director of Zoo Service group, underlined: ‘Obviously we will be present again this year. We have always considered Zoomark International a point of reference and we believe that Bologna fair has a fundamental role in the meeting between supply and demand. New proposals have always been one of our strengths. We believe that enhancing services and making use of IT and technological innovations is of great strategic importance to enhance the evolution and performance of our pet stores. This is demonstrated by the wide variety of services that we offer to customers and for which we will continue to commit ourselves’.
This brand was born in Sicily from a family project handed down from father to son. Today Zoo Service has 19 direct stores and four affiliates and a turnover of 15 million Euros in 2022. The group is headed by Michele Autore, entrepreneur from Palermo who inherited his father’s passion for the sector and passed it on to his son, purchasing manager of the group. The network includes shops ranging from surfaces of 160 to 700 square meters in locations with high traffic density, both in the city centre and in the suburbs, but also in shopping centres. ‘We focus a lot on specialized services. In our most representative store, namely that of Carini, in the province of Palermo, we are equipped with a grooming room and a veterinary clinic with surgery, radiology, and diagnostics departments. We believe it is a very important opportunity that allows our customers to independently use both sales area and space dedicated to the well-being and health of their pet’.
Growth strategies for 2023
A store was recently inaugurated in Palermo, in Viale dell’Olimpo 30/F. It is developed over an area of 350 square meters, with an offer of 11,500 references and a series of such services as delivery, medal engraving, and availability of food advice from the veterinarian present in our staff. ‘The pet store, in harmony with typical format of our network, is divided into two macro areas, the first dedicated to dogs and the second to cats, while the accessories are placed mostly at the entrance and in the perimeter part of the shop’. Furthermore, the store is equipped with Farma Service Veterinary Parapharmacy. ‘This opening will be followed by a second one during this year in a location already identified in the Sicilian capital. This will allow us to further consolidate our network in the city where we operate with 13 stores’.
