After opening nearly 300 stores in the U.S., in 1996 the company expanded to Canada. It also bought and renamed a pet-store chain in the UK, but the over-priced purchase was a failure financially and operationally, and PETsMART sold the UK chain at a substantial loss to another pet-store company in the UK in late 1999. The failed UK expansion brought a loss in profitability and a low point for PETsMART stock in 2000. The company's third CEO, Phil Francis, retooled the company by emphasizing employee training and customer service, overhauling operations and systems, redesigning stores for visual appeal, and marketing PETsMART as a one-stop shop for pet products and services. By 2002 the company had fully integrated its in-store, online, and catalog sales. Francis also led the opening of an average of 100 new stores per year from 2002 through 2009.