Omantribune
Oman Tribune
Omantribune
Omantribune Search News
Web Oman
    Google Search Button
      Tribune
- Oman
- Other Top Stories
- Middle East
- Business
- Sports
- India
- Pakistan
- Asia
- Europe
- Americas
- Columnists
- Editorial
- Oman Mirror
- Special Features
- Cinema
- Weather
- Travel
- Currency Rate
- Major Indices
- Hospitals
- Pharmacies
- Services
- Museum Timings
Omantribune Home Omantribune About Us Omantribune Advertising Information Omantribune Archives Omantribune Subscribe-Form Omantribune Jobs Omantribune Contact Us
Tuesday, February 09, 2010  
Four legged kids
By  Joan Verdon

DEBORAH Jack of Fort Lee, New Jersey, worked on Wall Street for 20 years before she found an investment opportunity she got excited about. It’s an investment, she says, with lots of growth potential, low start-up costs, and legs — and it lets her spend time with her favourite creatures — the four-legged kind.

Jack left Wall Street to become one of northern New Jersey’s first Fetch Pet Care franchise owners. Her business serves busy pet owners willing to pay a premium for dog walkers, cat sitters and various kinds of pet pampering.

Jack’s customers include Josh Rosoff, a West New York resident who pays Fetch about $300 a month to provide weekday walks for his beloved dog Jessie, a Labrador mix he adopted from the North Shore Animal Shelter on Long Island. Rosoff, who often works 12-hour days in Manhattan as a tax consultant, considers his dog-walking expenses money well-spent.

“Dogs love you so much, you like to take care of them the best you can,” he said. “And fortunately, I’m in a position where I can do that, so I like to think I provide her with the same life that I would ask someone else to provide me with.”

There are millions of Americans who feel the same, and their numbers are growing. Paul Mann, who started the California-based Fetch Pet Care franchise network in 2004, said that the “aha!” moment that alerted him to the profit potential of a pet-sitting business came when he was looking for pet care for his own pets and couldn’t find a reliable sitter.

Mann said he realised that “two-thirds of all households have pets, and yet there’s no reliable brand that provides professional, loving care across all the country”. Mann, who previously founded and later sold a high-tech job placement firm and an Internet software company, then set out to create such a brand.

Fetch now has 180 franchisees in 34 states, employing a network of 2,600 dog walkers and sitters. Mann said that the company expects to double the number of pet sitters and walkers in the network by the end of this year, and to have 10,000 Fetch workers around the country by the end of 2009.

Pet care is among the fastest-growing industries in America, and it is expanding in the midst of an economic slowdown.

Publicly traded PetSmart Inc., the country’s largest retailer specialising in pet products and services, with more than 1,000 stores, enjoyed 11 per cent sales growth in 2007, for total sales of more than $4.6 billion. Its pet services division, which includes pet grooming shops and PetsHotel boarding kennels, grew 22 per cent during the year.

“What’s really driving this is we’ve got a lot of baby boomers and dual-income-family households who are spending lavishly on their pets,” Mann said. “They’re treating them as family and there is no apparent slowdown in the industry.”

Fetch has four franchise owners based in northern New Jersey, which Mann says is a prime target for his company. “North Jersey is really a great demographic for us because it’s affluent,” he said. “There are a lot of folks who work in New York City and commute into the city. These are people who really love their pets, who treat them like family members.”

The affluent pet owners Fetch is targeting are willing to pay $16 to $20 dollars for a walk, $45 to $55 per day to have their pets spend the night in a sitter’s home, and $50 to $65 to have a dog sitter or cat sitter stay in their homes, so Fido or Pooch never have to leave familiar surroundings.

Franchisee Jack, whose Fetch employees care for pets in apartments along North Jersey’s Gold Coast, from Fort Lee to Jersey City, had one client who said that his cat would not eat unless someone was stroking the animal. “So we went in and stroked the cat so she would eat,” Jack said.

Jack, like Mann, realised that there were profits to be made in pet care when she was looking for care for her own animal. Her cat had developed diabetes and the stress of finding someone to give the animal daily shots twice was so great that she was considering quitting her job. “The absurdity of quitting a gazillion-dollars-a-year job just because I couldn’t find someone to administer a shot to my pet struck me,” she said.

She learned about Fetch, sent away for the information package, and signed up. She said she believes that her franchise has the potential to become a “multimillion dollar business” and to earn her an income in the six figures. She said that some of her more active dog walkers and sitters earn more than $3,000 a month.

Nick Lygnos, who opened Troy’s Stay and Play, a luxury boarding kennel in Ridgefield, New Jersey, three and a half years ago, said that his target customer is the pet owner who considers his or her pets members of the family.

His kennel has extra-large pens for dogs and “cat hotels” with scratch posts and climbing perches and a multimillion-dollar pen-cleaning and air-freshening system.

He said he hasn’t seen pet owners start to skimp on boarding care because of the economy, although some of his customers appear to be taking shorter vacations this year, he said.

He says he’ll cut back on his own food — have one slice of pizza for lunch instead of two — rather than reduce the $7 a day he spends on special food for his dog.

“You know how it is, the pets become like four-legged children,” Lygnos said. “I do have a lot of customers that are like that — that will tighten their belt just so their pet can still have that happy pet lifestyle that they’re used to.” 

Oman Tribune
NEWS UPDATES
Oman
Fahd receives Japanese envoy
Rawiyah visits new ministry building
Hamad Al Busaidi receives US delegation
Minister holds talks with UK team
Saiq records 70mm rainfall
Al Khalili inks pact to develop Falaj Al Hajar
Dams store 55m sqmt of water in rain
Municipal Council holds meeting
Water supply project in Dhofar inaugurated
Emulate Sultanate’s green initiatives: Parija
OETC workshop highlights media strategy
Other Top Stories
His Majesty issues three Royal Decrees
Violence flares up, Palestinians set terms for talks with Israel
More winds, rain expected
Arab investment meet ends today
Pressure for new Iran curbs grows
Treated water output to triple by 2012
US blocking Palestinian unity, says Meshaal
Lanka soldiers arrest Fonseka
India
Andhra court quashes quota for Muslims
Supreme Court seeks high courts’ stand on transparency in appointments
Rathore stabbed outside court
Northeast CMs urge stricter vigil along borders
‘Look poor’ advice taken out of context, says Australian police
Gandhi saw first movie at 74
Pakistan
Former Pak minister hurt in gun attack
Middle East
Iraq poll row to be resolved soon: PM
Iranians struggling over legacy, legitimacy of Islamic revolution
Iran jails reformist for 6 years
Deby visits Khartoum to end proxy wars
Iran to unveil air defence equalling Russian S-300
Palestinians to argue more on war crimes at ICC
Top deck of Burj Khalifa closed
Brotherhood leaders arrested
Asia
Nato, allies will secure Taliban bastion ‘forever’
S. Korea plotting to topple regime, says N. Korea
Taiwan sees no China backlash over US arms deal
Arroyo’s ‘US’ spokesman under fire
Business
Economy has turned corner, says Obama
Suhail Bahwan group, Lhoist sign JV
China sovereign fund holds US stocks worth $9.6b
Georgiou takes charge of Oman Air corporate affairs
Small lending is big business in France
India forecasts 7.2% growth in current fiscal
Kuwait’s $104b plan could boost non-oil sector, says Moody’s
Maruti sees 100% export growth in 2010 fiscal
Europe
Yanukovich wins Ukraine run-off poll
N. Irish paramilitary group disarms
UK Labour suspends three lawmakers in expenses scam
Swiss skier miraculously survives 17 hours under snow
Rat killing on TV show means trouble
Sports
Steyn spells disaster for India
Warne tells Aussies to take part in IPL
Pakistan must move on after defeats in Australia: Wasim
Saints Super Bowl champs
Win was destiny for Saints, says Brees
Magic explode in third quarter to beat Celtics
America’s Cup opening race called off
Inter juggernaut rolls on, Roma leapfrog Milan
Stricker sticks to title at Northern Trust
Match commissioners’ workshop concludes
Al Faisal topple NBO by two wickets
Karishma, Erica line-up for U-14 title clash
Soderling too good for Serra

BUSINESS


Sports

© OmanTribune 2005-2008. All rights reserved. Best viewed in 800 X 600 resolution