Pet Business World is sad announce the passing of Ken Burgess, former independent retailer and board member of the Pet Care Trust.
Ken passed away peacefully at home on August 3. Until recently, he owned the award-winning Burgess Boys Pet Care Centre in New Addington, Croydon, and was a former chair of the Central Parade Business Partnership. Over the 40 years Ken ran the shop he was also active in the wider pet industry, being a board member of the then Pet Care Trust (a forerunner of the Pet Industry Federation) and serving both on the livestock committee and the education committee. He was a major contributor to the content of the Pet Store Management course and was a City & Guilds examiner. Ken and the store also featured in the BBC children’s programme ‘My Pet and Me’ on the CBeebies channel.
Burgess Boys Pet Care Centre, which was named after Ken’s sons, became a fixture of the local community, hosting a children’s painting competition and regularly providing work experience placements to students and the wider community, as well as winning a Croydon Business Excellence Award and being rated the top pet shop in Croydon by Google.
Tributes have been pouring in from local residents and former customers, one of whom left a message of Facebook saying: “Ken was a lovely man, aways there with help and advice on our pets. R.I.P.”
There will be a memorial service for Ken on September 3 at St. Andrews Church, Limpsfield Chart, Oxted, Surrey, starting at 3pm.
