Communicating Pedigree Wholesale’s acquisition of Just for Pets

Challenge

To communicate Pedigree Wholesale’s acquisition of Just for Pets, which had gone into administration several weeks before, we were tasked with creating a multi-platform communications plan that would allow this information to be shared both effectively and sensitively.

Pedigree Wholesale is one of the UK’s leading suppliers of pet products into the independent retail sector which after news of its administration, acquired Just for Pets — an established pet retailer in the UK.

Solution

We used our extensive knowledge of pet marketing tactics to develop a communications campaign which involved social media management, community management, and regional and national consumer PR and trade PR.

Thanks to our long-standing presence in the pet sector, we leveraged our media contacts to spread the news of the acquisition far and wide. 

We targeted key trade titles as well as all relevant regional outlets where there were stores that would be affected by the news. Where there were store closures, the messaging was tweaked to ensure the story was cascaded tactfully and transparently.

Throughout the transition period, we managed the social media and community management of the brands. In addition to posting regular announcements, through our community management we were able to respond quickly to any customer or employee concerns. 

In anticipation of these questions, we also worked with the team at Pedigree to create a FAQs list ahead of the transition period to ensure that their customer service team was equipped to handle enquiries without delay and with messaging that was consistent with the wider communications campaign.