Executive Search Success Story: Building an Executive Team to Scale a Private-Equity-Backed Pet Specialty Retail and Services Platform

How JRG Partners executed a confidential, multi-role North American executive search strategy that equipped a private-equity-backed regional pet specialty retailer with the chief executive, financial, merchandising, services, and digital leadership required to expand from 90 to 220 stores, launch grooming and wellness services, and build a unified omnichannel customer experience.

The Challenge

A private equity sponsor had acquired a regional pet specialty retailer with a loyal customer base and strong unit economics, with a plan to more than double the store count, add grooming and wellness services, and build an omnichannel model to compete with national chains and online retailers. The founder-CEO was transitioning to the board, and the existing team had never opened more than eight stores in a year, had no services experience, and ran an e-commerce site disconnected from stores. Executive leadership and the sponsor identified several critical vulnerabilities threatening the growth plan:

• A founder transition with no professional chief executive or financial leadership
• Store opening capability limited to eight per year against a plan requiring thirty
• No experience building or operating grooming, veterinary wellness, or training services
• Merchandising reliant on national brands with limited private label and margin leverage
• An e-commerce channel disconnected from store inventory and loyalty
• Intensifying competition from national pet chains and online pet retailers

Recognizing that the plan required a professional multi-unit executive team, the sponsor and board engaged JRG Partners to recruit a Chief Executive Officer, Chief Financial Officer, Chief Merchandising Officer, VP of Services, and Chief Digital Officer. The company required an executive search partner with deep pet specialty and multi-unit retail expertise and the ability to deliver a coordinated team.

Why They Chose JRG Partners

Pet Food & Pet Care Industry Focus

JRG Partners maintains a dedicated practice serving pet food and pet care companies, including pet specialty retailers, services businesses, and consumer pet brands, with a clear understanding of pet parent loyalty, services economics, and the competitive dynamics of the category.

Multi-Unit Growth Experience

Our firm has extensive experience recruiting executives who have scaled specialty retail and services businesses from regional to national footprints under private equity ownership.

Private Equity Portfolio Expertise

Our team works routinely with sponsors and operating partners on founder transitions and executive team builds, with a clear understanding of value-creation plans and board expectations.

Our Executive Search Strategy

Phase 1 — Growth Plan Alignment

Our consultants partnered directly with the sponsor, founder, and board to review unit economics, the real estate pipeline, services plans, merchandising strategy, and digital capability, defining five executive profiles aligned with the growth roadmap.

Phase 2 — Talent Identification & Mapping

Our research team performed an extensive talent mapping initiative targeting chief executives, finance, merchandising, services, and digital leaders at pet specialty, specialty retail, and multi-unit services companies who had led documented store and services expansions. Over 380 executives were systematically assessed across these sectors.

Phase 3 — Candidate Engagement

Priority during outreach was given to leaders with a documented history of scaling store counts rapidly with consistent unit economics, launching profitable in-store services, building private label programs, integrating e-commerce with stores, and operating under private equity ownership. Only candidates meeting these strict performance baselines advanced.

Phase 4 — Selection Process

Finalists presented growth plans to the sponsor and board, completed structured leadership assessments, and underwent reference verification focused on quantified expansion, services, and omnichannel outcomes.

Key Outcomes

• 380+ pet specialty, retail, and services executive profiles mapped across North America.
• Successfully placed a synchronized executive tier spanning chief executive, finance, merchandising, services, and digital within eight months.
• Expanded from 90 to 220 stores within four years.
• Built services to 14% of revenue and private label to 22% of sales.
• Improved gross margin by 310 basis points.
• Grew loyalty members to 70% of sales through an integrated omnichannel model.