Chewy will create a customer service hub in Hollywood and hire 1,100 people, a move that will make the online pet product retailer the largest private employer in the city, it was learned today.
Expected to be up and running by October or November, the new customer service outpost will be in the Hollywood Mall at the intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Park Road, according to Hollywood Mayor Josh Levy.
“[1,100 new jobs] is huge, for any city,” Levy wrote in a Facebook post making the announcement. “I am very excited for the surrounding restaurants and businesses who will benefit so greatly from having all those employees around.”
Through a spokeswoman, Chewy echoed Levy: “We’re very excited about our continued growth,” said Chewy head of public relations Roxsanne Tai.
Chewy operates its headquarters out of the Design Center of the Americas building in Dania Beach, the same place $4.5 billion startup Magic Leap got its start. The company’s total number of employees will swell to about 6,100 once new hires are in place. Memorial Healthcare System would then drop to the No. 2 place among Hollywood’s largest private employers.
News of the expansion comes about two months after the $3.3 billion deal that made Chewy a subsidiary of big-box retailer PetSmart went through. The transaction is the biggest ever in the realm of e-commerce.
Founded in 2011, Chewy made a name for itself by growing aggressively through a strategy of customer acquisition over short-term profits. From handwritten holiday cards to free shipping on orders over $49, Chewy wooed pet owners across the U.S. and in 2016 dominated about 43 percent of all online sales of pet food and litter in the U.S., second only to Amazon.com.
In lieu of pumping millions into developing its own online shopping division, Phoenix-based PetSmart forked over about one-quarter of its worth to acquire Chewy’s built-in audience of almost 4 million customers.
The transaction was announced in May.
