Exclusive: Pets at Home appoints new retail chief operating officer

Madsen has held senior roles at Sainsbury’s and Tesco, and joins from Danish supermarket chain Føtex where she was CEO. 

Before this, Madsen was a marketing leader at Johnson & Johnson in Europe and the Middle East, following four years as a strategy consultant across a range of industries. She is a graduate of the London School of Economics and holds an MBA from INSEAD.

The appointment follows current chief operating officer Lisa Miao’s announcement that she is to retire.

Miao joined Pets at Home as commercial director in 2015 having previously held senior positions at several well-known food retailers, she was promoted to chief operating officer in October 2022. 

Before joining Pets at Home, Miao spent 15 years at Asda Walmart leading the trading divisions of the business, then moved to Morrisons for five years as the commercial director for food and general merchandise.

Madsen will be responsible for leading Pets at Home’s Retail business and 9,000 retail colleagues across over 450 stores, operations, logistics, supply chain and commercial, and will be “focused on further enhancing the pet care centre estate along with delivering fantastic products, services, and support to Pets at Home customers”, the retailer said.  

Pets at Home chief executive Lyssa McGowan said: “I am delighted that Anja will be joining the Pets at Home executive team to lead our retail business. We have made significant investments into our retail operations over the last 18 months and Anja’s experience leading consumer-focussed businesses will help us to realise our next phase of growth as we continue to deliver for pets and the people who love them.” 

Madsen added: “As a specialist retailer with such passionate and purpose-led colleagues, Pets at Home is a business I have admired from afar and I am delighted to have the opportunity to join the executive team at such an exciting time. With the new distribution centre in operation, the rollout of the Pets rebrand and the digital transformation underway, the business is well placed to achieve its goal of building the world’s best pet care platform, and I can’t wait to get started.”