The Czechia-based Plaček Group has opened the largest pet store in Russia, boasting a retail area of 1 500 m2, in a prominent shopping centre in Moscow. As the location of his first Russian pet store Plaček chose the 16-year-old Kapitoly Leningradskiy Shopping Centre, which in spite of its age has lost nothing of its attraction and has a high footfall. It also benefits from its situation directly on the orbital motorway leading into Moscow city centre. The mall underwent a general refurbishment in 2012, and its operator puts the annual visitor traffic at six million.
Company proprietor Dušan Plaček has realised a long-held ambition with the store opening. Russia is the market with the most pets in Europe; at the same time, the eastern European country, spanning the largest area on earth, is one of the world's fastest-growing pet supplies markets.
The decision by Plaček to establish this store is a bold one. None of the countless Russian pet store chains have dared to open such a huge store in the Russian capital up to now. On a retail area of 1 500 m2 the Plaček Group's new Dino Zoo outlet offers a range of 15 000 products covering all pet categories and setting new standards for the Russian pet supplies market in terms of variety and depth of range.
Dušan Plaček has an intimate knowledge of the Russian market and its idiosyncrasies as a result of his wholesale operations there and he intends to expand further. The opening of a second Dino Zoo of similar size in another Moscow shopping centre is planned for the first six months of the coming year.
