- Bentley's Pet Stuff to open its first store in Michigan in Ann Arbor
- The company acquired Green Pawz Pet Supply
- Bentley's plans an eight store expansion in Michigan in route to 20
A family-owned natural pet food supplier in suburban Chicago is fetching for expansion in Michigan.
Bentley's Pet Stuff, registered in Illinois as Pet Stuff Illinois LLC, made headway into the state's market after a late-January acquisition of Green Paws LLC, a pet store dba Green Pawz Pet Supply in Ann Arbor. The owners are seeking to open a total of eight stores across the state by year's end that could yield more than $8 million in total revenue, said Giovanni Senafe, who co-founded the company with his wife Lisa.
Financial details of the deal that the principals negotiated were not disclosed. It included Green Pawz's 2,700-square-foot storefront in the college town's Maple Village plaza. The acquisition was followed by a 10-year lease extension with New York City-based Brixmor Property Group Inc.
Bentley's will retain Lisa Pearce, the Green Pawz seller, to manage the store and its seven employees.
"She and her staff have the launching point," Giovanni said of Pearce. "We have someone with 10-plus years of experience that knows everything about running the store and she has a tremendous staff."
Design work on the Ann Arbor store will be handled internally, Giovanni said.
After finding it difficult to shop for products with "real ingredients" for their dog and the company's namesake Bentley, Lisa Senafe conceived the idea that led to their first store in Arlington Heights, Ill. Bentley's carries about 1,700 stock keeping units, a much smaller inventory than its big box competitors that can carry up to 20 times that amount, Giovanni said.
The concept has since spread to 86 stores across 11 states with about 500 employees. Prior to Bentley's, the couple owned a boutique mortgage company and rehabbed houses until the Great Recession, he said.
