A POPULAR pet business is continuing to expand - weeks after it announced a second shop outside of Salisbury.
Clearway Pets has acquired the adjoining unit in the Cross Keys Shopping Centre, allowing it to double the size of its Salisbury store - to go alongside its new unit in Stockbridge.
It was also highly commended in the Start-up Business of the Year award.
Mike Adamson, 28, who operates the business with his wife, Emily, 24, said the idea to expand was originally brainstorming.
Mike said: “We’re a lot busier than we ever thought we would get. We’ve got a lot more product than we thought we’d ever even need, and people are still wanting more from us, so that’s when we said it as a bit of a joke once, ‘We’ll just knock the wall down and we’ll go into next door.’”
However, after more consideration, the concept sounded more and more practical and realistic.
Mike said: “We thought ‘Well actually, if we did go into next door, we could have a really big showroom, because all of our coats are upstairs and they don’t get seen. We can have all the coats downstairs.
“We work quite heavily with Joules, and we can have all their pet range in proper displays, and so then the ball started rolling, we could have a better range of harnesses, dog leads, collars, cat food and cat scratching posts.”
Exterior signs will arrive next week for the additional section of storefront, though much work remains to be finished before the new half of the shop will be ready for use.
The current target for opening is mid-July, though it’s too early to announce an official date.
One of the most unique additions to the shop which will be made possible by the expansion is the inclusion of fitting rooms for customers to safely remove their pets off their leads and try different coats and harnesses.
Mike said this will create a much more comfortable atmosphere for dogs, which can get stressed and excited when being fitted with new coats and harnesses on the floor of the shop surrounded by multiple strangers.
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Mike said: “When we go to a clothes shop we don’t take our clothes off in the middle of the shop, we go into a fitting room. So why not have a fitting room for the dogs?”
There will also be an interactive area for pets and pet parents to experiment with different toys and other products, with televisions and displays showing how to use things.
Mike said: “A lot more interactive than your typical pet shop. You’re shown how to use everything, almost taking the customer on a little journey around the shop.”
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