Playful Pack vice president of development Brock Dudley, left, and Nick Sheehan. (Photos courtesy Playful Pack)
A Northern Virginia-based pet care franchise has dug its claws into the Richmond market.
Playful Pack, which offers dog daycare, boarding and grooming, just opened its first location in the region at 13711 Village Mill Drive in Midlothian.
Behind the new 5,000-square-foot facility is franchisee Nick Sheehan, a Richmond native and first-time business owner.
Sheehan told BizSense that, having grown up in a family with dogs, he’d had a dream to create a business that involved some furry friends. And with three dogs of his own, Sheehan, who works as a full-time senior manager at Capital One, said that returning to the office after the COVID-19 shutdown, he learned firsthand about the search for reliable dog daycare services.
“It’s a personal problem we experienced,” Sheehan said.
After connecting with a franchise coach, Sheehan said he began searching for a dog daycare franchise he felt was the right fit. He eventually located Playful Pack, which was founded in 2019 by husband and wife Tyler and Alyssa Parker along with Tyler’s brother Scott. The chain has multiple locations in Northern Virginia, as well as locations in D.C., Texas, Maryland and South Carolina.
“I’ve been looking to start my own business or buy an existing business for three years,” Sheehan said. “We looked at a couple of different concepts and landed on Playful Pack.”
Sheehan, who continues to work full-time at Capital One, signed on in April as Playful Pack’s franchisee in the Central Virginia region. His storefront opened Monday after some upfit on the space, which in years past has served as a children’s daycare center. Nash Warren of Commonwealth Commercial represented Sheehan in leasing the space.
Dogs play in the outdoor space at Playful Pack’s grand opening.
The standalone, cage-free Midlothian facility has 4,000 square feet of indoor play areas and a 1,200-square-foot outdoor turf area.
Sheehan said the Midlothian space appealed to him not only for its large square footage but for its central location in an area where he sees few competitors.
“There’s really nothing in Midlothian as far as dog daycares go,” he said. “When you look at the big competitors … they’re all in Chesterfield. There’s no major player here.”
Pricing for daycare at Playful Pack starts at $35 per day per dog. The daycare also offers discounts for multiple days and for customers with multiple dogs.
Dog boarding starts at $65 per night, while wash and dry services are $25.
Playful Pack in Midlothian is open every day from 6:30 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. and has 10 employees. As the location grows, Sheehan said that number could potentially double.
Sheehan said that if the Midlothian venture is successful, he plans to add Playful Pack locations further throughout the central Virginia and Tidewater regions.
“Seeing (the Parkers) have done it themselves in Northern Virginia gives me confidence that it can scale and work here,” he said.
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