Karen Hodgkins

Founder

Background

Karen started her pet journey at the age of 13; she started to work weekends at her local kennels and thoroughly enjoyed every aspect of it, from gaining her first experience with customer service all the way to feeding and caring for the animals. 

As Karen got older she got a weekend job at a local chemist in Stockton Health, it was here that she saw the opportunity for a pet shop, with plenty of customers asking about various pet health products at the chemist. Although, she didn’t peruse that opportunity just yet, at the age of 17 Karen left school to open up her own business, a boarding cattery, over a span of 5 years Karen made this a very popular and successful business. 

At the age of 22, Karen finally seized the opportunity in Stockton Heath after a small corner shop went up for sale, knowing there was an opportunity for a pet shop and a high demand for pet products in the area, the shop got off to a flying start. She spent a year trying to run both Pets Pantry and the cattery; however Karen decided eventually that it was in her best interest to sell the cattery and focus all her efforts on the shop. After 5 years of hard work Pets Pantry continued to grow and grow and showed no signs of stopping, this is where Karen made a massive decision of signing for a bigger, high street property in Stockton Heath.

That property is the one we have today, being run by Karen to this day.

Role

Karen is the managing director of Pets Pantry, she is very hands on and loves to interact with customers and help them in any way she can. A typical day for the MD would be, firstly to check the shop floor before opening our doors, working alongside the web team, monitoring online orders, and social media feeds and interactions, whilst answering emails and telephone enquiries. To keep our team up to speed with the latest products, she organises product training and oversee CPD’s for the team. Karen is also involved in the marketing of the business, meeting clients and attends numerous events on behalf of Pets Pantry.

Favourite part about the job

The best part about the job for Karen is helping people get the product that they really want, helping them with advice and guidance to find exactly what they need. Another love of the job she has is thinking of new exciting ideas, looking at situations from different angles and thinking of solutions that set Pets Pantry apart from the rest.

Qualifications

• SQP(Animal Medicines Advisor) for equine and companion for over 10 years

• BSc Hons in Life Sciences with the Open University

• One of the first students on pet trade and livestock management course

• Diploma in animal behaviour

• Full first aid training

Interests

In her spare time Karen loves to swim outdoors, very much enjoying seeing the wildlife as she swims by, one of her favourite animal sightings in the water are minks.

Karen also loves photography, as you probably guessed wildlife photography.

Pets

Name an animal, chances are Karen has probably had it as a pet, her impressive pet history ranges from geese to goats, hamsters to tropical fish, even stick insects and snails. 

However at the moment she just has one much loved cat called Lynx.