PRIVATE EQUITY OWNED
PetSmart
Includes Pet Smart
pet supplies · Phoenix, AZ
- PE Firm
- BC Partners →
- Year Acquired
- 2015
Your dog's groomer got a pay cut, but BC Partners got a $3.35 billion shopping spree.
The PE Playbook
- BC Partners bought PetSmart for $8.7 billion in 2015 — the largest retail buyout in history at the time — and immediately began cutting costs across the chain
- BC Partners acquired Chewy for $3.35B in 2017, funded by adding $2B to PetSmart's already massive debt load, pushing total debt past $8B
- Senator Elizabeth Warren questioned BC Partners over deteriorating worker conditions, inadequate training, and increased pet deaths
- Groomers locked into 'Training Repayment Agreement Provisions' — charged $5,000 if they quit within two years
Since the Acquisition
- An NJ Advance Media investigation documented 47 dog grooming deaths over a decade — 32 of them after BC Partners took over in 2015, more than double the rate of the prior seven years
- Workers reported understaffing so severe that store freezers overflowed with dead animals because there weren't enough employees to handle proper disposal
- Senior groomer and senior trainer positions eliminated at stores, reducing expertise available to customers
- 15% of corporate staff laid off shortly after the acquisition, with an additional 300 home office workers cut in a separate round