FDD Talk: The Fetch! Pet Care Franchise Opportunity (Financial Performance Analysis, Estimated Costs, and Other Important Stuff You Need to Know)

In this FDD Talk 2016 post, you’ll learn the following:

• Section I – Background information on the Fetch! Pet Care franchise opportunity, including relevant news updates

• Section II – Estimated initial investment for a Fetch! Pet Care franchise, based on Item 7 of the company’s 2016 FDD

• Section III – Presentation and analysis of Fetch! Pet Care’s financial performance representations, based on Item 19 of the company’s 2016 FDD, including information on the:

• 2015 average, minimum, and maximum revenue for the top 20%, upper middle 20%, middle 20%, lower middle 20%, lowest 20%, and all Fetch! Pet Care locations open at least 2 full years (i.e. open before January 1, 2014)

• 2014 average, minimum, and maximum revenue for the top 20%, upper middle 20%, middle 20%, lower middle 20%, lowest 20%, and all Fetch! Pet Care locations open at least 2 full years (i.e. open before January 1, 2013)

• 2013 average, minimum, and maximum revenue for the top 20%, upper middle 20%, middle 20%, lower middle 20%, lowest 20%, and all Fetch! Pet Care locations open at least 2 full years (i.e. open before January 1, 2012)

• aggregate location sales revenue; location cost of goods sold; gross profit; recruiting, training, and education; location marketing; general and administrative expenses; taxes, fees, licenses, permits; and net operating contribution for all 5 company-owned locations purchased from a franchisee that joined the company as an officer, for the entire first year of company ownership

• actual year-over-year revenue change for all 11 Fetch! Pet Care locations transferred since 2012 that have at least the full twelve months under the new franchisee’s management needed to calculate the year-over-year revenue change

• 2015, 2014, 2013, and 2012 total system-wide sales from all Fetch! Pet Care locations open and operating for any portion of the given year

Section I – Background Information

Providing Quality Pet Services

Fetch! Pet Care was founded by Paul Mann in 2002 in Berkeley, California. Upon moving to Berkeley in 2001, Mann met the dog walker who worked for the previous owners of the house he purchased.

After learning about dog walking services, Mann immediately began to do more research on the service. Through his research, Mann discovered that there was a need for reliable dog walkers. According to Mann, he wanted to provide “the highest quality pet service possible.”

The first Fetch! Pet Care location was an immediate success. Within a year, the first location employed 75 pet sitters and had 1,000 clients. Mann began franchising a few years later in 2004. Over the next few years, the business continued to expand and by 2008, Fetch! Pet Care had 200 locations throughout the United States.

In recent years, many Fetch! locations have closed. Today, Fetch! Pet Care has only 100 locations throughout the country.

Fetch! Pet Care Hires New Vice President of Client Services

In early 2016, Fetch! Pet Care named Randy Weddle as Vice President of Client Services. Weddle comes from Dayton-based One Call Now, a mass notifications and communications group based north of town.

As the new VP of Client Services, Weddle is in charge of the design and scalability of Fetch!’s Client Concierge Center, a call center in Dayton, which matches dog walkers and pet sitters with customers. The call center currently has 11 employees, but company founder Paul Mann says that there are plans to “aggressively hire” more staff.

Fetch! Pet Care has relocated its company headquarters to Dayton after it received an investment from Dayton-based Cybeck Capital Partners, LLC. The call center already oversees about a dozen Fetch! Pet Care locations. There are plans in place for the call center to eventually oversee all of the company’s locations.

Fetch! Pet Care Celebrates Its First 10-Year Local Franchise Renewal

In early 2016, Randy Ring, a Fetch! Pet Care franchisee in the St. Louis metro area, renewed his franchise agreement for another 10 years. Ring’s renewed franchise agreement is the first franchise renewal in Fetch! Pet Care’s history.

Ring says that he renewed “because of the company’s outstanding communication, support, systems, processes and procedures, all of which help [him] provide superior service throughout his territories.”

Fetch! Pet Care Ranks on Inc. 5000

Fetch! Pet Care ranked on Inc. Magazine’s annual Inc. 5000 list in 2016. Fetch! ranked in the middle of the list at No. 2608. The company earned its spot for its 3-year sales growth of 135%.

The Inc. 5000 recognizes successful independent small business companies. Companies such as Microsoft, Domino’s Pizza, LinkedIn, Yelp, Zillow, and many other well-known names gained their first national exposure as honorees of the Inc. 5000 List.

Ranked a Handful of Times on Entrepreneur’s Franchise 500

Over the last decade, Fetch! Pet Care has ranked on Entrepreneur’s annual Franchise 500 list four times. Although Fetch! did not rank on the list for 2017, it did make Entrepreneur’s list in 2016 at No. 321. The highest rank that Fetch! Pet Care has earned was No. 166 in 2011 and the company’s lowest spot was No. 498 in 2007.

Section II – Estimated Costs

• Please click here for detailed estimates of Fetch! Pet Care franchise costs, based on Item 7 of the company’s 2016 FDD (updated).

Section III – Financial Performance Representations (Item 19, 2016 FDD) and Analysis