We’re on the move!

Now if you try to call us this Saturday morning (16th Jan 2016) you’ll find we’re not in. That is because we’re moving to bigger premises this weekend and all the phones will be in the back of a van! So our apologies about that. We’ll be back up and running for Monday (18th Jan 2016)– and our course you can drop us an email in the meantime.

We’re moving now for the 5th time in 11 years, each one motivated by a desire to improve and introduce new systems, aimed at making sure you get your order faster and with less hassle. I could witter on about automated stock picking and the like - but what this really means is that orders will move from website to warehouse to envelope to your door more efficiently than ever.
Now that’s all very corporate and the sort of thing you are supposed to say when moving; but it is also rather exciting and highlights how quickly we all become set in our ways. So here’s the deal. We’ll all try to remember to drive to a different location on Monday morning, while you just need to send all postal communications for Pet Drugs Online to:


      Pet Drugs Online
      Unit 7b, Burnett Business Park,
      Gypsy Lane, Keynsham
      Bristol
      BS31 2ED


Now it is odds on at least one member of staff will forget and get out of their car on the 18th with that “where is everybody” feeling. So we will of course have a mail re-direct in place to scoop any postal waifs and strays, as we all adjust to the new address.

The Pet Drugs Online 'journey'

Luckily we’re not moving far and above is a map showing each of our short hops around the historic county of B&NES. We reckon our entire journey is only 24.8 miles, an average of 6.2 miles each time! So no too far if we do get lost on the commute next week!
Cheers,
The Pet Drugs Online Team

Things have changed a fair bit in 10 years

Back in 2005 Tony Blair was elected for a third term, while Charles and Camilla got hitched. London won the right to host the 2012 Olympics, then suffered the terrible bombing on July 7th. Liverpool FC won their 5th European Cup, while Lance Armstrong won his 7th Tour de France. Live 8 concerts were held to highlight global poverty, while New Orleans was smashed by Hurricane Katrina. Oh and in the basement of veterinary surgery just outside Bristol a small business was started.
That was us, Pet Drugs Online, and now we’re nigh on 10 years old. As great aunt Maude was so fond of saying, “my how we’ve grown”*.

A tentative dip of a veterinary toe in then unknown waters of e-commerce, Pet Drugs Online was at first an experiment to see if pet owners really would buy their medicines via the internet. Employee No.1 Steph, (who now oversees the prescription team) would regale the vets with news of how 5, then 10, and eventually an incredible 20 orders were placed each day. There was an appetite and it was growing.

The following years have seen a huge number of changes for both us and our customers. We’ve out grown four buildings and have had five iterations of our website. Our customers now shop by smartphone rather than landline, while more prescriptions are now sent via email and social media than post. Initially were part of a veterinary group with 9 surgeries, but now we total over 150. Which offers us business stability and an increasing pool of expertise to call upon, all focused on the one thing that has stayed the same – making pets better!

From day one, the focus of Pet Drugs Online has been to lower the cost of veterinary medicine and to make this service available to all of the UK. That way customers get more meds for their money, and that means longer term, higher quality care for their pets. Which is the point. It’s about the pets. And although we now serve 1000’s of customers a day rather than 5 or 10, we need to remember this lies at the very heart of what we do.

What will the next decade hold for Pet Drugs Online? No idea! We’ll be ready, looking at each and every new development (3D printed tablets anyone?) to see if it can help make pets better – and if it is possible/practical/feasible. But who knows what the world will be like in 2025! After all in 2005 who would have predicted Bournemouth in the Premier League, twerking becoming an entry in the dictionary or that beards would regain a level of popularity not seen since Victoria ruled!
*And I’ve never worked out why great Aunt Maude so muddled her impersonal pronouns