Chewy (company)

Subsidiary
Industry Retail
Genre Pet supplies
Founded 2011
Founders
  • Ryan Cohen
  • Michael Day
Headquarters Dania Beach, Florida, U.S.
Area served
 United States
Products Pet food and products
Number of employees
 7,000 (2018)[1]
Parent PetSmart
Website Official website

Chewy is an online retailer of pet food and other pet-related products, owned by PetSmart and based in Dania Beach, Florida. In addition to its headquarters in Florida, Chewy also maintains fulfillment centers in Texas, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Florida and Indiana.[2][3][4]

Description

It was founded under the name "Mr. Chewy" in September 2011 by Ryan Cohen and Michael Day.[5][6] [2][3][7] The company hired former employees and executives from Amazon, PetSmart, Whole Foods Market, and Wayfair.[2]

In March 2012, the company estimated a total yearly revenue of $26 million, despite losing money in its first half year.[3][5]

By 2016 it had received $236 million in venture capital financing over 5 rounds[8] from Volition Capital,[9] Mark Vadon, T. Rowe Price, New Horizons Fund, BlackRock, Allen & Co, Verlinvest and Greenspring Associates.[8][10]

By 2017, the company had revenue of approximately $2 billion and 51% of online pet food and litter sales in the US.[1][11] It spent heavily on customer acquisition and retention; in 2017 Forbes reported that its profitability was unclear, and quoted an unnamed competitor who that its customer acquisition costs might be as high as $200 per customer and who said: "The bottom line is that Chewy is incredibly predatory, and they're willing to lose money to grow their volume."[12]

Acquisition

Chewy was acquired by PetSmart in May 2017 for $3.35 billion, which at the time was the largest ever acquisition of an e-commerce business.[13][14] Allen & Co. served as financial advisor to Chewy on the deal.[15] In March 2018, Cohen stepped down as Chewy's CEO, and Sumit Singh was named the company's new CEO.[16] In February 2018, Chewy opened a new 100,000 square foot customer service center in Hollywood, Florida, which houses over 1,000 employees. [17]

References

  1. 1 2 Marcia Heroux, "Why has Chewy.com succeeded? Co-founder points to its customer service and changing times," Sun-Sentinel, January 29, 2018.
  2. 1 2 3 Valverde, Miriam (6 November 2015). "Pet retailer Chewy.com is part of a growing breed". Sun-Sentinel. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  3. 1 2 3 Miller, Susan R. (30 March 2012). "Pet product online retailer sees growth in a bullish market". South Florida Business Journal. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  4. ↑ O'Driscoll, Bill (2 July 2014). "Pet food e-tailer to fill vacant Toys R Us site". Reno Gazette-Journal. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  5. 1 2 Woo, Stu (6 March 2012). "Pets.com 2.0". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  6. ↑ C., Piers (15 January 2015). "Emerging startup: Chewy.com". Varyonic. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  7. ↑ "Company Overview of Chewy, Inc". Bloomberg. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  8. 1 2 "Pet food retailer Chewy.com has seen fantastic growth. But can it keep up the pace?". Miami Herald. Retrieved 2017-04-19.
  9. ↑ Loizos, Connie (26 July 2016). "Volition Capital has rounded up $250 million for its third fund". TechCrunch. Retrieved 2 August 2016.
  10. ↑ "Chewy Funding & Chewy Investors - CB Insights". Retrieved 2017-04-19.
  11. ↑ Nancy Dahlberg, "PetSmart is buying Chewy.com in possibly the biggest e-commerce acquisition ever," Los Angeles Times, April 19, 2017.
  12. ↑ Susan Adams, "The Man Who Found Gold in Dog Food," Forbes, January 24, 2017.
  13. ↑ Emily Canal, "Meet the Young Founders of Chewy.com, Which PetSmart Just Bought for $3.35 Billion," Inc., April 19, 2017.
  14. ↑ Jason Del Ray, "Ryan Cohen kept Chewy under the radar until it sold for more than $3 billion," Recode, December 6, 2017.
  15. ↑ Jessica Dye, "PetSmart makes online push with Chewy.com deal," Financial Times, April 18, 2017.
  16. ↑ Stephanie Crets, "Roundup: Chewy CEO steps down and other personnel news," Internet Retailer, March 16, 2018.
  17. ↑ Debora Lima, "Chewy.com opens its new call center in South Florida," South Florida Business Journal, February 13, 2018.
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