In an interview, Saurabh Jain says that preventive care, private labels and omnichannel convenience, spanning stores, quick commerce, marketplaces and D2C channels will remain key growth levers
Omnichannel pet care company Zigly Pet Care is targeting to double its business in FY27 as it deepens its bet on a health-first, integrated pet care model amid rising pet parenting and growing demand for trusted wellness services in India. Saurabh Jain, Chief Executive Officer, Zigly Pet Care, said the company is building a one-stop ecosystem spanning veterinary care, grooming, diagnostics, wellness and products to address the trust and convenience gaps in the highly fragmented pet care market, with services already contributing nearly 60 per cent of its revenue.
In an interview with BW Retail World, Jain said the company is pursuing an aggressive expansion strategy to strengthen its presence across India, with plans to scale from 45 centres across 19 cities currently to nearly 65 centres by the end of FY27 through a mix of organic growth and partnerships. The company is opening nearly two centres every month and is also exploring collaborations with veterinary hospitals and doctors to deepen its healthcare network.
He added that preventive care, private labels and omnichannel convenience, spanning stores, quick commerce, marketplaces and direct-to-consumer channels will remain key growth levers as pet parents increasingly seek trusted, seamless and proactive care solutions.
Expansion, Quick Commerce And Breakeven
Jain said the company is pursuing an aggressive expansion strategy as it scales its integrated pet care ecosystem across India, with a sharper focus on healthcare-led centres and deeper penetration beyond metros. The company, which has expanded in recent months, is targeting around 65 centres by the end of FY27 from 45 currently, while also exploring acquisitions to strengthen its footprint.
“This itself shows the pace of our growth. Today, as we speak, we are in 45 centres and 19 cities,” Jain said, adding that Zigly Pet Care is opening nearly two centres every month. “Our ambition is to be around 65 centres by the end of this year. Acquisitions will be over and above that,” he added, highlighting strong traction in tier 2 markets such as Amritsar, Jalandhar, Jaipur, Indore and Dehradun.
“In this quarter, we opened five centres already. We are opening one in Bangalore next week and another one in Pune end of next week. We are just opening another in Surat. We are opening almost two centers every month,” he explained.
Jain noted that Zigly Pet Care has fundamentally changed its store economics over the last 18 months by shifting focus from retail-heavy formats to healthcare and wellness-led centres. Today, nearly 80 per cent of store space is dedicated to veterinary care and grooming, while products account for the remaining share.
“We were doing more of products earlier. That model we have flipped over the last 18 months or so, and it is giving us phenomenal results,” he said, adding that centres typically take 18 to 24 months to break even, although some newer stores have become profitable within a year.
On the digital front, Jain said quick commerce and hyperlocal delivery are reshaping consumer expectations around convenience, making omnichannel presence increasingly important. He added that the company is leveraging marketplaces, quick commerce, D2C and retail channels simultaneously, while maintaining strong customer stickiness, with over 30 per cemt repeat rates within 90 days.
“The expectation of customers in terms of convenience of deliveries and logistics have gone up. All of us have to respect those expectations,” he said.
Growth Ambition Backed By Preventive Care Push
Jain said the company is aiming to double its business in FY27 after growing around 65 per cent in FY26, with expansion expected to come through both organic growth and acquisitions. “We grew by around 65 per cent last year in FY26, but in FY27 we would like to double ourselves, both organic and inorganic, and it is fairly achievable,” he said.
According to Jain, the next wave of growth in India’s pet care market will not be driven by any single trend, given the category is still at a nascent stage. He said preventive or “proactive” healthcare, standardisation of veterinary services and greater convenience through ecommerce and hyperlocal delivery will emerge as key growth levers. “Parents would seek options and avenues on how they can take better care of their pets,” he said, adding that customers are increasingly seeking better hygiene, transparency, standard operating procedures and consistent experiences in pet healthcare.
Jain added that integrated ecosystems offering products, diagnostics, grooming and veterinary care under one roof are likely to gain stronger consumer preference as pet parenting matures in India. “People now are not ready to accept this broken ecosystem,” he said. “They will prefer an ecosystem player like us in which they have the peace of mind to get everything at one place,” particularly as first-time pet parents look for simplicity and trusted guidance.
Building A Health-first Pet Care Ecosystem
Jain said the company is positioning itself beyond a conventional pet retailer by focusing on wellness, preventive care and trusted services to simplify the pet parenting journey. According to him, first-time pet parents often struggle with fragmented options across products, grooming and veterinary care, making trust and convenience critical gaps in the market.
“For us, what we intended to do was not that we want to be a retail outlet. Our positioning was, we want to be in the wellness space, in the proactive care,” Jain said. “Pet parents are facing a problem of transparency because they are confused. They do not know who to trust. And number two, simplicity. It is so complex, especially for a first-time pet parent, it becomes overwhelming.”
He added that the company’s focus is increasingly centred around high-trust categories such as veterinary care, diagnostics, vaccinations and grooming, while products remain an important part of the overall ecosystem. “We call ourselves a health-first ecosystem. People will need you for a high trust category like vet care, right type of nutrition, diagnostics, so that a pet lives a healthy life,” he said, adding that the company’s omnichannel model allows consumers to choose between stores and online channels based on convenience while staying within a single ecosystem throughout a pet’s lifecycle.
Healthcare, Private Labels As Key Growth Levers
Jain said healthcare and wellness are already at the core of the company’s business, with services such as veterinary care and grooming contributing a larger share of revenue than products. He noted that while Zigly Pet Care may appear to be a retail-led company from the outside, high-trust categories have emerged as the strongest drivers of engagement and repeat behaviour.
“Counterintuitively, 60 per cent of our revenues come from the sticky businesses, the high-trust categories like vet care and grooming,” Jain said. He added that almost all centres today have dedicated veterinary facilities, including diagnostics, in-house X-rays and, in many locations, 24×7 emergency care.
“All the centres that we are opening now or even the previous ones have a dedicated vet care facility,” he said, adding that the company is actively exploring partnerships with doctors and veterinary facilities to deepen its healthcare ecosystem. “We are in talks to partner with multiple such facilities as we speak,” he emphasised.
Alongside services, the company is also scaling its private label portfolio across food, grooming and lifestyle categories to strengthen margins and consumer stickiness. Jain said brands such as Applod, FurPro and Catmos have received a strong response, with a focus on differentiated, health-led products rather than competing as “another me-too brand”.
“In anything that we are doing, we are trying to do some differentiation of keeping the health first in mind for the pet,” he said, citing the introduction of oven-baked pet food as an example of product innovation.
From Pet Ownership To Pet Parenting
Jain believes India’s pet care industry is still in the early stages of organised evolution, with rapid post-pandemic growth exposing deep structural gaps in trust, access and awareness. He noted that the number of pets in India has surged sharply over the past few years, while the ecosystem, spanning products, grooming and veterinary care, continues to remain fragmented and heavily dependent on neighbourhood providers.
“The pet care market has not gone through a very structured growth so far. In 2019, we had only one crore pets. That number by 2023 became three to four crore. The Indian market was not structurally ready to cater to that type of growth,” Jain said, adding that nearly 70 per cent of pet parents today are first-time owners who often struggle to navigate care choices and reliable services.
The CEO added that the category is now witnessing a behavioural shift from pet ownership to pet parenting, with spending increasingly driven by emotional connection, awareness and wellness rather than breed preferences or income levels. “Premiumisation is happening towards wellness, towards what is really good for my pet. It is less to do with disposable income and more to do with higher intent and higher knowledge,” he said. He added that pet parents are increasingly opting for preventive care, regular grooming and better nutrition, as awareness around long-term pet health continues to rise.
