Mark Berriman has sold Viverdi, the parent company of
PetSupermarket.co.uk, to fellow pet supplies etailer MedicAnimal
for an undisclosed sum. The sale was conducted in October 2011
but as part of the agreement, Berriman was required to remain with
the business until April 2012. Viverdi was sold on a share
purchase basis with Berriman retaining the intellectual property
rights for the back-end technology along with Gifts2Drink,
another business in the Viverdi group.
Commenting on the reasons behind the sale, Berriman says,
“For the past seven years, I put my life into launching and
developing PetSupermarket. However, I have recently had problems
outside of work which forced me to take stock of my life, and I
decided that the time was right to sell the
business.”
All 30 staff were given the opportunity to relocate from Jarrow,
Tyne & Wear to London, where MedicAnimal is based. Two
PetSupermarket employees transferred to the new
headquarters.
MedicAnimal founder and chief executive Ivan Retzignac says the
first priorities after buying the business were to
“integrate the people and processes in order to ensure we
maximised the efficiencies of working as one company”.
Another focus is further differentiating the brand positioning
and “cross-selling the separate databases,” he
says.
In May, MedicAnimal secured £10 million in funding to
support it through its next stage of growth.
Share