Phoenix, Ariz.-based pet food giant Petsmart is salivating over the Canadian market like a pit bull at a butcher’s shop window.

The company’s intentions recently became obvious when it hired Cossette Communication-Marketing as its Canadian agency, and it made moves to set up a Canadian office in Toronto.

Petsmart Canada General Manager Einar Seadler says the company plans ‘to become the pet supply retailer of choice in the Canadian market,’ a bold claim, but one backed up by a history that has seen the company grow into a chain of almost 290 stores across the u.s.

‘We see an evolution in the importance of pets, and see that the market is actually growing,’ says Seadler.

Seadler describes the stores as ‘category killers,’ with an average of about 25,000 sq. ft. of retail floor space.

While he won’t reveal how many stores the company plans to open here, it is understood Petsmart intends to open about 80 in the next five years, including five in Toronto over the next few months.

Seadler says Petsmart is ‘very serious’ about this market. He explains that Canadians, perhaps even more than Americans, are open to the idea of shopping for pet food at high volume retailers.

‘I think, unlike in the u.s., there is a more developed preference for pet specialty stores.’

Seadler says it is difficult to characterize the type of advertising and promotions the chain uses when entering a new market, however he did say the company has advertised using all forms of media.

The stores sell a number of different types of pet food and supplies, including premium and regular private brands, but do not sell pets themselves, except for domestically-raised freshwater fish and some birds.

‘We are philosophically opposed to the sale of cats and dogs in our stores,’ says Seadler. ‘Given the large overpopulation [of pets] both in Canada in the u.s., we choose not to assist in creating the problem.’

Petsmart also offers pet grooming and obedience services.

Pet Valu, a Canadian-based pet food retailer, is also staking out new territory with ambitious plans to open 50 new stores in the midwestern u.s., as well as 20 more in Ontario and Manitoba before the end of the year.

Pet Valu opened its first three u.s. stores in the Baltimore/Washington area last year (it now has six there) and has established a u.s. head office in Wayne, Pa.

Pet Valu has a total of 226 stores, 196 of which are franchised. It, too, sells only pet foods and supplies.

The combined 1995 retail sales at company-owned and franchised Pet Valu stores increased by $14.6 million or 15.4%, to a new high of $109.3 million from $94.7 million the year before.

David Wheat, vice-president of franchise development at Pet Valu, says the company prefers not to talk about its marketing and expansion plans.

He did say, however, that there are no immediate plans to expand in Canada beyond Manitoba and Ontario.

Generally, the only form of advertising the retailer uses is home-delivered flyers.

According to A.C. Nielsen, the 1995 Canadian pet food market was worth about $318 million, about 1% less than the year before.

In 1989, Statistics Canada determined that about four million of the 9.4 million households in Canada had pets.