Heads Up For Tails Eyes Tier 2 Cities With Over 20 New Stores

Pet care startup Heads Up For Tails (HUFT) has announced the launch of its new stores in Lucknow, Ahmedabad, Chandigarh and Kolkata.

With this, the startup aims to reach Tier 2 cities and take its store count to over 20 stores by this year-end, thereby bringing its total store count to 50 stores.

The Delhi-based retailer is also looking at international expansion this year by opening its first company-owned store in Singapore and envisions to strengthen its international reach. The brand expects a large volume of demand to come from the expansion.

About 60% of the company’s business comes from offline stores, whereas 40% of the demand comes from online channels. “Seeing our plan turn to fruition is truly exciting. It’s overwhelming to watch our little homegrown brand grow year after year. We closed the year 2019 on a record high note, witnessing 91% growth Y-o-Y,” said Rashi Sanon Narang, founder, HUFT said in a statement.

Founded in 2008 by Narang, the startup is a retailer of pet products. Its products include comfy and customised dog beds, chic collars, and leashes, fashionable dog apparel, accessories for pets and pet lovers. The brand also offers its own range of organic grooming products such as shampoos, conditioners, dry bath shampoo as well as human-grade treats for pets. The startup has 28 stores pan India at present.

“We have only just begun and really excited to see our brand grow both nationally as well as internationally,” Sanon added. The startup completed a $10 Mn Pre-Series A funding round in September 2019 to expand into B2B distribution. The investment was led by a group of family offices, HNI’s and existing promoters.

The startup’s maximum demand comes from millennials and young couples aged between 24-35 years. “Heads Up for Tails is on a growth trajectory as we registered strong sales in 2019 and hoping to carry forward the same growth momentum in 2020 as well”, said Samarth Narang, CEO, Heads Up For Tails.

In India, Pet food holds more than two-thirds of the market revenues and accessories, grooming and healthcare are also seeing tremendous growth in cities. Many startups are leveraging technology to grab a share in the fast growing pet market.

A dog-walking startup, Wag, backed by SoftBank, is a unicorn and a Gurugram-based online portal for pet care, DogSpot.in, had raised an undisclosed amount in funding from Ratan Tata, along with a few new and existing investors. Some other prominent pets-focused startups are Waggle.in, Collar Folk, Gurugram-based Doggie Dabbas and Dogsee Chew.

Heads Up For Tails will continue to focus on maximizing quality in terms of pet products and services for our pet owners. “We are confident that with our expansion plans we will yield higher results and will continue to grow the pet care market in India,” Narang added.

The brand is also on a rapid hiring spree and is looking to onboard around 100 more employees across its core team and stores, bringing the total count to 345 employees by the end of this year. The hiring will be done across senior-level management and middle-level executives.