Jollyes, the UK’s second largest pet retailer, has revealed that it plans to have 250 stores in the next five years, after securing significant backing from investment funds managed by TDR Capital LLP.

The deal with TDR Capital is expected to complete in April with Andy Bond, currently executive chairman of Pepco Group and a former chief executive of Asda, due to become non-executive chairman.

Speaking at the opening of the 100th Jollyes store – in Newport, South Wales – Joe Wykes, the retailer’s chief executive, said: “Two years ago, we had three really important milestones coming up fast – £100 million turnover, 1,000 employees and 100 stores.

“We sailed through the £100m barrier in the early part of 2023, we reached 1,000 employees at the opening of the Christchurch store in April last year, and we targeted Easter 2024 for our 100th store – the opening of the Newport store, on St David’s Day, was the third piece in our puzzle.”

Mr Wykes said that the new investment will allow Jollyes to build infrastructure around the retailer’s recruitment, marketing, learning and development and property functions.

“I would love to be sat here with you in the autumn and saying, we’re now opening two stores a month,” Mr Wykes said.

“I would love to close the gap to Pets at Home. It’s got 460+ stores and we’re number two with 100 stores. In the next five years, we’ll have 250 stores. In pet retail, there is no comparator to Pets at Home and all I’m trying to do is just fill that whitespace.”

Linda Pandeli, HR manager, at Jollyes, said the retailer has 150 qualified SQPs, with 67 members of staff currently on the Vetpol course.

“We had 100 SQPs 12 months ago,” Ms Pandeli said. “Ideally, we’ll have at least one SQP working in each store, otherwise we won’t be able to sell licensed medicines, but we aspire to have three SQPs per store, to cover the shift patterns.”