A well-loved independent pet shop has moved to a prestigious market place location after more than 25 years at its previous premises.
Not Just Pets, which also has a store in Bath, opened its doors at the new building in Frome, Somerset, during the first week of March.
“It’s a much better location for us in the town,” said owner Janine Tozer, who runs the business with husband Mike.
“It has the prestigious address of No. 1 Market Place and we have huge windows with a lovely view on to Frome market place. At our previous building we were next door to M&S but due to the nature of the building it wasn’t obvious we were a shop.”
The covid-19 pandemic forced Janine and Mike to change their business model and downsize.
“We were no longer selling livestock and were paying rent on rooms we couldn’t use in our old premises, and the two sale rooms we had left were too small,” added Janine.
“The landlord was also redeveloping the building around us into possible flats which was causing much disruption to our business. We were yet to agree a new lease due to the landlord’s ever-changing plans. We needed a fresh start.”
There had been a pet shop in the former location for 12 years before Janine and Mike took it over in 2007.
Janine hopes the new shop can have some sort of official opening in the summer but it is already proving popular with customers.
“We had a fantastic first day with so many lovely positive comments from customers and many new faces we haven’t seen before passing by and popping in,” she said. “We also had a lovely welcome from all the traders around us, some of whom are still closed.”
