Petco, baseball and California

Petco continues to grow its brand presence and customer base in the important California market.

At a recent Merrill Lynch conference on retailing, the company announced that Petco Park in San Diego has generated 865 million Petco-related impressions nationwide. That's a lot of eyeballs.

In the northern part of the state, Petco has bought radio ads highlighting discounts on specialty dog foods using Pet Pals cards.

The company's presence in California has quickly become strong, and it is on pace to open more stores in the first half of 2005 than Petsmart.

The company also mentioned their slogan "Petco, where the pets go" has three times unaided customer retention than major competitors.

With aggressive moves in one of the strongest pet markets in the U.S., Petco is poised to nip at its rivals heels.