Pets at Home has opened two new smaller concept stores in London, in the hopes of a further rollout within the M25 in the near future.

The stores feature a limited selection of the retailer’s offer, tailored to the local area.

Located on high streets in Putney and Camden, the stores a break away from Pets at Home’s typical retail park spaces.

The retailer is targeting between 20 and 25 new stores within the M25 over the next few years, each of which will be 3,500-4,000 sq ft – half of its normal store size.

Each new store will employ 15 store colleagues, creating around 400 new jobs in the capital.

Chief executive Peter Pritchard said: “Camden was an existing store which was refitted and Putney was brand new. We’re typically a retail park operator but you can’t do that in London and we’ve always wanted to expand there.

“Two things have happened: one is a definite improvement in the availability of sites – unfortunately, because of other retailer’s demise; and secondly, we’ve got a format that we think works well.

“Its essentially a mini pet care centre. It’s still a combination of services and retail but really fine-tuned on a ranging perspective for London customers – typically there are more cat owners than dog owners in London, shoppers will have slightly smaller bag sizes because of their ability to carry rather than visit in a car, and they usually by more premium ranges.

”If we get one or two car parking spaces we’ve done well; often on high streets they’re quite compromised units but its the location that’s the driver. 

“We’ve got a list of requirements and its now very much availability driven, so we’re actively working hard to find more stores spaces to fit those requirements now.”