Peter Pritchard

…who led a turnaround for Pets at Home over five years when the business had lost its way. As a pet store and a vet, Peter could see the business was running in two big silos despite having lots of shared customers, and fundamentals were wrong, in particular being too expensive. He describes having to ask not just what do we do, but why do we do it. At the time the mission was to be the world’s best pet shop and the world’s best vet but he felt this was inward looking. There are all sorts of places you can buy pet food and toys or go to a vet. The simple change became recognising pet owners’ greatest motivation is to look after their pet, who can’t speak, and Pets at Home should support them, becoming the best pet care business in the world – with the emphasis on care. They built an in-house team to understand their customers using all the data held on owners but also pets, spotting differences in food consumption by dog breed for example. And then action was taken across four areas that mattered most – making pet ownership easier, more convenient, something that felt fully supported and something rewarding over time through a give and take relationship. The attitude instilled was customer-led, starting by recognising that each customer could be worth £15,000 over the lifetime of a pet and using that long term view to instil a generous approach to creating value rather than chasing sales as had happened in the past.