Focus on: Business Strategies Twenty years of steady growth and smart acquisitions have propelled Doctors Foster & Smith to the top spot among pet-supply catalogers.

By Reported Donna Loyle

While such operational efficiencies always are welcome, especially in a challenging economy, the acquisitions didn’t come without their share of headaches. “When we moved Pet Warehouse from Ohio to Wisconsin, it was disarray for two months,” says Foster. “We had backorder rates that were higher than we were comfortable with. But we learned a lot, which helped us with the subsequent acquisitions.”