Ill. retailer purchases Colo. chain of stores
In just eight weeks, a Colorado-area chain of natural pet food stores agreed to be acquired by an Illinois retailer backed by entrepreneur Marcus Lemonis, the host of CNBC’s reality series “The Profit.”
Greeley-based Natural Pet Marketplace, with stores in Greeley, Denver and Fort Collins, will be renamed Bentley’s Pet Stuff. Current employees will remain.
The sale sped by because Natural Pet’s owner, Tim Peterson, needed to focus on his other fast-growing business, Wild Calling, which makes natural pet food in Greeley.
“Tim Peterson also owns one of the fastest-growing natural pet food companies. As that was growing for him and growing fast, the retail store obviously became a second thing for him,” said Giovanni Senafe, who owns the Lincolnshire, Ill.-based Bentley’s with his wife, Lisa. “We were a retailer he knew, and he was a
brand we trusted.”
The Senafes aren’t stopping with just three stores in Colorado. They plan to open eight more in the Denver area this year. Some will be acquisitions; others will be built.
New stores will be in Boulder, Arvada, Fort Collins, Greenwood Village, Aurora, Littleton, Highlands Ranch and Broom- field.
“Colorado has been in our top three (states) for expansion,” Senafe said. “We’ve had this (growth) plan in place. We wanted to help grow the independents (stores). There was a lot of consolidation on the (pet food) distributor end, which made it difficult on our end. Our goal is to keep great people in the industry but take all the stuff they don’t like doing off their shoulders, like bookkeeping and dealing with landlords.”
The Senafes started Bentley’s, which focuses on healthy and natural pet food, in 2008. In November, Bentley’s was featured on “The Profit” under the moniker Bentley’s Corner Barkery. Lemonis invested $1.7 million in the pet food chain.
Since that infusion five months ago, Bentley’s has acquired five companies, growing from eight stores to 21. It renamed itself in February to Bentley’s Pet Stuff after acquiring Pet Stuff in Chicago.