The Chewy – PetSmart – BC Partners Saga (2 of 5): Raymond Svider & the billion dollar bet (#316)

In the world of private equity, convention is king: borrow big, slash costs, and squeeze profits.

But Raymond Svider, Chairman and Partner of BC Partners, has always had a taste for risk and a talent for rewriting the rules. Today, he sits at the helm of one of private equity’s most astonishing success stories:

The transformation of a flailing pet retailer and an unprofitable dot-com into a $30+ billion juggernaut that continues to shape the future of pet care, veterinary services, and beyond.

From Leveraged Buyout (LBO) Nightmare to Investment Masterstroke

Back in 2017, Svider was facing a high-stakes meltdown. His firm’s largest investment, PetSmart, was sinking. Laden with $6 billion in debt from an $8.7 billion leveraged buyout and hollowed out by outdated systems and a hiring freeze he didn’t even know existed, PetSmart was teetering on the brink of collapse.

Instead of retreating or gutting the business, Svider doubled down. He borrowed more. He bent conventional rules. And in a high-risk move that many called reckless, he paid $3 billion for a then-unprofitable online pet food retailer: Chewy.

Critics howled. Lawsuits flew. Bonds dropped. But Svider saw something others didn’t. Chewy was quietly outperforming Amazon in its niche. It was capturing hearts by building a fiercely loyal customer base. Within four years, Svider’s gamble had not only salvaged PetSmart but minted one of private equity’s most extraordinary payoffs.

By 2021, Chewy had gone public with a valuation topping $30 billion. PetSmart, once a distressed asset, had refinanced its debt and posted healthy growth. BC Partners and its co-investors were sitting on a $30 billion windfall, a return that rewrote the playbook on pet industry investing.

The Playbook Evolves: 2021–2025

Four years later, Svider’s influence remains strong, not just over pet food and retail, but over veterinary care, pet insurance, pharmacy services, and beyond.

As of April 2025, Svider still chairs the board of Chewy and serves as Non-Executive Chairman of PetSmart. Under his leadership, both companies have evolved into major players in the integrated pet services landscape, blurring the lines between e-commerce, brick-and-mortar, and clinical care.

In 2023, Apollo Funds made a strategic equity investment in PetSmart, validating its turnaround and solidifying its potential for an IPO. Meanwhile, Chewy has bought back shares from BC Partners, reducing Svider’s firm’s stake, but signaling his desire to leave behind a thriving, independent enterprise rather than merely extracting profits.

Svider also holds leadership roles at companies such as Valtech, Madison Logic, and GFL Environmental, continuing his pattern of investing in overlooked or misunderstood sectors.

At a fireside chat hosted by the University of Chicago’s Polsky Center in 2025, he emphasized a lesson he’s learned through crisis and comeback:

Conviction matters more than convention.

Rick’s Commentary

Svider’s rise isn’t just a case study in bold investing. It’s a mirror to the corporatization of the veterinary profession. The PetSmart-Chewy empire now touches nearly every facet of pet care, including clinic ownership, pharmacy fulfillment, wellness plans, and tech-enabled services.

For veterinarians, this isn’t a neutral development. It raises fundamental questions:

• Who controls the delivery of care?

• What happens when financial targets conflict with medical judgment?

• And most of all, what is lost when private equity treats pet health as a growth sector rather than a vocation?

Raymond Svider didn’t just make a fortune on pet food. He reshaped an industry. His story is equal parts brilliance and bravado. A masterclass in timing, risk, and reinvention.

But for those who live the reality of veterinary medicine every day, not from the Hamptons, but from a small exam room or a midnight surgery suite, Svider’s success story prompts another kind of reflection.

It asks us to consider what happens when compassion meets capital.

When the healing arts become holdings.

And whether, in this new landscape, there is still room for the soul of veterinary medicine to thrive.

We’ll examine some of these questions in Part 3 of this 5 part series.

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