Pet Valu Inc., a pet food retailer with several stores in the Pittsburgh region, on Wednesday announced plans to wind down its U.S. operations “due to severe impact from covid-19.”
Pet Valu said it expects its 358 U.S. stores and warehouses, scattered throughout the Northeast and Midwest, and its U.S. corporate office in Chester County to close at the end of the wind-down process.
“The Pet Valu U.S. team is proud to have met the needs of our devoted pet lover customers in the U.S. for more than 25 years,” Chief Restructuring Officer Jamie Gould said. “However, the company’s stores have been significantly impacted by the protracted covid-19-related restrictions. After a thorough review of all available alternatives, we made the difficult but necessary decision to commence this orderly wind down.”
Pet Valu has stores in Latrobe, Jeannette, Mt. Pleasant, Allison Park, McCandless, Wexford, the South Side, Greentree and McMurray.
The U.S. division of Pet Valu licenses its name from Pet Valu Canada, which is a separate company based in Ontario that is unaffected by the wind down. Pet Valu Canada, described as a “market leading, highly profitable and growing business” in a news release, will continue to serve customers across 600 stores in Canada.
Pet Valu stores in the United States will be open through the wind-down process, and customers can continue to use gift cards and loyalty rewards for purchases. Effective immediately, however, U.S. customers can no longer place online orders with Pet Valu. More consumer information is available on the retailer’s website, at www.petvalu.com/us/.
Pet Valu’s website states store-closing sales will begin Thursday. It’s unclear how long the sales will last or when the retailer’s U.S. operations will close for good.
