Leo Shop: Branding a Pet Store Chain in Karaganda

The challenge: a pet store that sells trust, not just food

Leo Shop is a chain of pet stores in the Karaganda region — five stores selling food, treats, toys, care products, litter and accessories for cats, dogs, birds, rodents and fish. The category is crowded and price-driven: the same brands on every shelf. Leo's brief was to win on something a discount can't copy — expertise and care.

The brand had to do two jobs at once. For owners, the place where a question gets an honest answer — which food, which toy, which care product. For the business, one system across five stores, from the sign to the bag, so a new branch opens looking like Leo on day one.

The strategy: care as the whole business model

The mission is the strategy in one line: care for animals and their owners through quality goods and services. The positioning: a modern, expert brand for animals, with care for every client.

The archetype is the Caregiver — a support for clients and their pets, so owners feel confident their pets get only the best. Four values hold it together: love for animals — caring for pets as one's own; high quality — standards in everything; responsibility; and support for pet owners, including help for homeless pets.

The slogan says it plainly, in Russian and Kazakh: «С любовью к вашим любимцам!» — with love for your pets.

The identity: a cat, a heart, and a nose

The logo: an orange cat sitting next to the word Leo — and the o in Leo is a heart. The metaphor behind the identity is built from three small things: a heart, a bone and a nose — with love for every little nose, as the brandbook puts it. The cat and the dog return on the mugs, the bags and the social templates: the brand has faces, not just a mark.

Orange does the heavy lifting: #FF6900 (Pantone 1505 C), deeper #CC5400, lighter #FF964D, two blues (#273693, #0096FF) for colour-coding, black #1E1E1E, white. One typeface carries the voice — Cera Round Pro, Bold for headings, prices and discounts, Regular for descriptions — friendly and round, like the cat.

The rollout: one orange system across five stores

The brand went everywhere a customer could meet it: the storefront sign — the orange cat and Leo on dark grey — is the loudest asset on the street, backed by a branded car, banners and bags. Inside: a table tent, a staff badge, a gift certificate, postcards, mugs, polo shirts, hoodies, a cap, a shopper tote.

On the shelf, the orange is the wayfinding: the bag, the box and the tape all carry the same cat. On Instagram the same orange leads the profile image and highlights.

Where they are now

Today Leo Shop is the chain its brandbook drew: five stores across the Karaganda region — four in Karaganda (Gogolya 57, Yerzhanova 39/5, Nurkena Abdirova 20, Yazeva 21/4) and one in Temirtau, opened October 11, 2026. The branch on Mukanova 13 closed October 16, 2026. The feed — @leoshop.kz, 305 posts, posting as recently as November 11, 2026 — mixes care advice with the assortment. The care value shows beyond the shelves: Leo helps rehome animals, and asks adopters to send before-and-after photos. No standalone website; Instagram is where the chain lives.

What retail founders can take from this

• Win on expertise where you can't win on price. When every shelf holds the same brands, the store that answers honestly — and looks like it cares — is the one owners return to. More in our guide to branding a bakery.
• Build the system before the next store. Same cat, same orange, same promise at every branch — that is what makes a fifth store possible. More in our guide to brand strategy for a franchise.
• Let the values do visible work. Helping homeless pets find homes isn't a line in a brandbook — it's proof the Caregiver archetype is real, and customers can see it. More in our guide to rebranding a restaurant.

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