In 2016 we celebrated our 25th anniversary, and together with a new visual identity, we changed our name from Samohýl to Samohýl group. Why Samohýl group? Apart from the veterinary wholesaling, which was the initial activity, we have been conducting various other business activities (we are also a pet food and pet accessories wholesaler, we own a retail pet shop chain Zvěrokruh with an e-shop and 51 shops around the Czech Republic and have our own brand of sewn, Czech made products for pets called Samohýl Exclusive).
We believe that the new title better expresses the scope of the services that we provide.
On the 1st of July, 1991, the veterinary service in the Czech Republic was privatized after 41 years of state control. More than 1500 veterinarians could freely start their own businesses. This newly created business environment brought a demand for veterinary wholesalers and so, basically by chance, Petr Samohyl and his associates founded Pharmvet, one of the first of its kind in the emerging market.
In the same year, the company was renamed Samohyl et al.
In 1993, we started business with the world’s leading manufacturers of veterinary medicines, and in many cases we were the first Czech company with which they came into contact.
For example, we were the first importer of Ivomec (at that time manufactured by MSD Agvet).
In 1998, we bought our current headquarters in Lomnice nad Popelkou. This building was constructed at the beginning of the 20th century. In 2007, we began a major reconstruction of the administrative area.
In 1999, we became an exclusive distributor of Purina Pro Plan pet food produced at that time by Ralston Purina. The exclusivity continued after the company was acquired by Nestle Purina Pet Care and lasted until 2013. That is how we became active as a wholesaler on the Czech pet shop market.
The first Zvěrokruh store, on Běhounská street in Brno was founded, the basis of the future chain.
Between the years of 2001 and 2012, we annually organized the Veterinarians Ball at the historical building of Žofín in the center of Prague, which was regularly attended by hundreds of people.
As a distributor, we are partly a logistics company (from the beginning we ran our own logistics). In 2016, we bought the first car running on CNG. Today, more than half of our vehicle fleet (with a total of 85 vehicles) runs on CNG and we have our own CNG filling station on site.
In 2010, we merged with the veterinary wholesalers Sanvet and gained a 100% stake in the Zvěrokruh retail chain.
In 2012 we bought our warehouse building and we have done two major expansions to increase storage space to 5720m2.
We celebrated 25 years of our existence and changed our name. Now we are Samohyl group.
We updated our ERP system Microsoft Dynamics NAV to new version, and implemented WMS (Warehouse Management System).
