Canada’s leading specialty retailer of pet food and pet-related supplies, Pet Valu, is undergoing a full supply chain transformation project
Pets are more than just animals; they are companions when we feel lonely, a friendly face we look forward to seeing, and above all, they’re part of our families. As Canada’s leading specialty retailer of pet food and pet related supplies, Pet Valu is a company made up of thousands of Animal Care Experts (ACEs) striving to provide care and expertise through its network of more than 800 stores across all ten provinces and a modern digital channel.
With over 10,000 SKUs in its portfolio of pet consumables and accessories, combined with its mix of corporate and franchised brick-and-mortar stores, direct-to-consumer (D2C) offering, and wholesale business, Pet Valu’s supply chain is undoubtedly complex. Nico Weidel, Chief Supply Chain Officer, joined the company in 2022 to undertake a supply chain transformation, including the consolidation of nine distribution centers and warehouses into three state-of-the-art, partially automated sites. 
Beginning by explaining the company’s evolution in recent years, Nico opens: “Pet Valu was established in 1976 and began franchising in the 1980s. Through both organic growth and regional acquisitions, we’ve constantly expanded across Canada, and we now operate more than 800 stores, which are within minutes reach for 75 percent of the country’s population. We also operate a significant wholesale business and launched our D2C website in 2021, integrating click and collect services in the same year, and later adding AutoShip, a subscription platform for regular pet necessities.
“We pride ourselves on offering consistent service regardless of how or where our customers shop, and our advanced network allows us to drive industry-leading customer service metrics and generate competitive pricing. By combining our channels under one roof, we can leverage the same inventory, processes, and infrastructure to drive greater efficiency.
“Our broad assortment includes premium, super-premium, holistic, and award-winning proprietary brands with products ranging from pet consumables like food and treats to accessories like toys, waste management solutions, cages and carriers, and apparel,” he adds. “This means our supply chain is unique in that it functions in two halves; the consumables aspect behaves like a grocery supply chain, whereas the other half, like accessories and apparel, acts like a specialty retail distribution business.
“Aside from the challenges of stocking a huge range of products, our supply chain must also contend with Canada’s geography. Any Canadian supply chain must maintain extremely good control on its inventory position, placing inventory ahead of actual demand due to long lead times in certain areas, such as two weeks between Toronto and some Atlantic provinces, for instance.”
Putting pets first
Although Pet Valu had been growing for decades, the business experienced particular success during the pandemic and quickly outgrew its in-house storage capacity. “We were using third party overflow facilities, and the network wasn’t operating as effectively or efficiently as we’d like, so, in 2022, I joined Pet Valu to commence its supply chain transformation,” Nico shares.
“Our transformation aims to completely modernize both our supply chain and distribution network, the latter of which concentrates on the Greater Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary regions. With Vancouver and Calgary on the west side of the country with the Rocky Mountains in-between, deciding whether to have a base on both sides of the mountains is tough from a supply chain perspective, but we must remember it only takes a wildfire or heavy snowfall to delay journeys across the mountains by up to three weeks.”
Detailing the distribution transformation, he continues: “Focusing on three key areas, we’re investing over $100 million between 2022 and 2025 to transition from nine legacy facilities to three larger, partially automated distribution centers. We’ve already transitioned the sites in the Greater Toronto area, and we’ve recently consolidated our legacy Vancouver sites into a new facility in Surrey, British Columbia. The final phase is Calgary, where we plan to transition into a new facility this summer and complete the transformation of our distribution network. The three sites in Greater Toronto, Vancouver, and Calgary will more than double our supply chain capacity.
“Together, the three sites will ultimately more than double our capacity, which will not only better support the growth of the business moving forward, but will also provide a more flexible, reliable, and accurate service for our customers. We’ll be able to distribute to all channels from each site, and a mechanized system will separate D2C orders from store deliveries. This is particularly important considering our broad spectrum of services, as we have trucks leaving for 14-day intermodal journeys and others providing same-day delivery in Toronto at any one time.”
Embracing automation
Consolidating the nine manual sites has also enabled Pet Valu to introduce automation technology, leading to further efficiency and accuracy gains. “One of our key investments in automation is the implementation of a piece picking solution from AutoStore in our new Greater Toronto area facility, which is one of the largest installations in Canada,” Nico reveals. “We’ve added over 4000 SKUs into our AutoStore system and have about 100 robots to automatically pick these items. By using AutoStore, we were able to fold one of the four Ontario warehouses entirely into the automation and increase our storage density at the Greater Toronto Area site, with the current system using just four percent of the footprint of our largest facility. We’re also seeing increased pick productivity and 99.9 percent pick accuracy, as well as being way ahead of our competitors in terms of automation.
“AutoStore has been working remarkably well since it went live in July 2024. We’re blending the system with a manual solution for our heavy and large items like aquariums or dog beds. Finding an automated system for these items proved challenging and extremely expensive, but the combination of both drives the most value for our business without being excessively capital intensive.”
Nico turns his attention to the benefits of automation. “Implementing automated processes within our transformation project is driving strategic, operational, and financial benefits, and has dramatically increased the flow through the facility,” he states. “There are also key benefits for our employees, as our 14 automated workstations provide ergonomic gains compared to employees manually picking items using push carts.
“To involve our employees in the automation process, we asked them to submit their pets’ names for each of our robots. It’s a unique way to engage our people and it’s fun to essentially have 100 pets driving around the warehouse. Also, all our murals and images of animals are photographs of our employees’ pets, whether on our trucks, in the stores, or within our marketing materials.”
Total transformation
As our conversation ends, Nico expands on what’s next for Pet Valu. “We open dozens of stores each year, and 2025 is no exception, as we believe having stores in hundreds of communities across Canada helps us to provide pet lovers with even better access to our product assortment and expert services,” he says. “Our new facility in Calgary will also open in mid-2025 and will serve Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and select locations in British Columbia.
“Alongside this, we’re strengthening our internal systems and leveraging the foundation we’ve built over the last couple of years through our supply chain transformation as we strive for further growth in the coming years,” Nico concludes. “Above all, we remain fully committed to our mission to be Canada’s preferred pet retailer, delivering the products, care, expertise and memorable moments that devoted pet lovers want, locally in stores and everywhere online.”
With its supply chain and distribution transformation almost complete, it’s clear that Pet Valu boasts a strong foundation for further growth in 2025 and beyond. The company’s industry-leading position in terms of automation will continue to drive unrivaled efficiency and accuracy, and with Nico at the helm of its supply chain operations, Pet Valu is sure to dominate the Canadian pet market for years to come.