From a light-bulb moment at a European trade show to helping transform pet identification into a personalized retail experience, MyFamily Canada celebrates a decade in the Canadian pet industry.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – September 15th, 2026
MONTREAL, Quebec — MyFamily Canada is marking its 10th anniversary after a decade of supplying Canadian pet retailers with Italian-made pet identification products and in-store engraving solutions—and helping reshape a category once viewed primarily as a functional necessity into a more personalized, engaging retail experience.
When MyFamily Canada entered the market in 2016, pet identification was largely treated as a once-in-a-pet’s-lifetime utility purchase. Pet owners typically selected from a limited assortment of basic tags, provided a pet’s name and phone number, and relied on store staff to complete the engraving.
MyFamily Canada introduced a different approach. By combining self-service engraving technology with hundreds of tag designs displayed like a fashion collection, the company helped breathe new life into the category—turning an essential safety product into a personalized accessory that pet owners could enjoy choosing and making their own.
At the heart of that transformation remains the fundamental purpose of pet identification: helping lost pets find their way home. A visible ID tag with a phone number continues to provide one of the simplest and most immediate ways for someone who finds a lost pet to contact its owner. By making tags more personal, expressive and collectible, MyFamily Canada has helped give pet owners more reasons to keep identification on their pets and to update or change their tags over time.
The story began in May 2016, when MyFamily Canada President Daniel Stopnicki attended the Interzoo trade show in Germany and walked past the booth of MyFamily S.r.l., an Italian manufacturer of pet identification products and engraving systems.
“It was a light-bulb moment for me,” Stopnicki recalled. “I had been in the pet industry for more than three decades, and when I saw this incredible wall of colourful tags, I immediately understood that this could completely change the way pet identification was presented and sold in Canada. It wasn’t just about engraving a name and phone number anymore. There was an opportunity to make the entire experience more personal, more engaging and more exciting for the consumer.”
Building on years of experience developing European brands within the Canadian market, Stopnicki reached an agreement with MyFamily S.r.l. to become its exclusive Canadian distribution partner.
Just four months later, the first MyFamily engraving systems arrived in Canada and were presented to retailers at the PJAC trade show in Mississauga, Ontario. The launch represented a significant leap of faith. The new engraving systems required a substantially larger investment than the equipment Canadian pet retailers were accustomed to, and Stopnicki was uncertain how the market would respond.
“I knew we had a great concept, but I was nervous,” Stopnicki said. “We were asking retailers to look at pet identification in a completely different way and to make a much larger investment in the category. We sold our first five machines at that show, and that gave us the confidence that retailers could see the opportunity too. We never looked back.”
From those first five machines sold in 2016, MyFamily Canada has grown to more than 1,600 retail locations across the country, including essentially every major independent pet retail chain in Canada and hundreds of independent pet retailers. That reach has established MyFamily as a market leader in pet identification and in-store engraving within the Canadian specialty pet retail market.
Unlike traditional engraving systems, the MyFamily experience was designed to put the consumer at the centre of the process. Tags are presented on dedicated displays offering a broad selection of colours, shapes, materials and designs. Once a tag is selected, its cartridge can be placed directly into the engraving machine, while an intuitive touchscreen allows the customer to enter and personalize the information themselves.
The result changed more than the engraving process. It changed the way consumers could interact with the entire category.
Over the past decade, pet owners have increasingly looked for products that reflect their animals’ personalities and identities, while specialty retailers have placed greater emphasis on personalization, service and value-added experiences.
What was traditionally a one-time purchase made out of necessity could now become an expression of style, giving consumers a reason to choose different tags for different collars and occasions, or simply because they discovered a design they loved.
For retailers, in-store engraving has created an opportunity to combine an essential pet-safety product with an interactive experience that can be completed while the customer waits. The extensive assortment also allows stores to merchandise pet identification as a destination within the store rather than simply as a functional service.
“What has stood out over the past 10 years is how important our retailer relationships have been,” Stopnicki said. “We introduced a new way of thinking about the category, but our retail partners are the ones who brought that experience to pet owners across Canada. Listening to them and understanding how their customers’ expectations have evolved has influenced every stage of our growth.”
As personalization became more familiar to consumers, retailers sought broader assortments, greater design choice and products suited to different merchandising approaches. MyFamily Canada responded by expanding both its retailer network and its product offering while maintaining its focus on pet identification, engraving and premium European accessories.
Today, its portfolio includes engraving systems and retail displays, more than 800 pet ID tag designs, and Italian-made collars, leashes and harnesses.
The recent opening of the MyFamily Canada YUL Boutique represents another step in that evolution, providing the company with a dedicated retail environment to showcase its complete assortment while gathering direct insight into changing consumer preferences and shopping behaviour.
As MyFamily Canada enters its second decade, the company is extending the personalization concept that helped redefine pet identification in Canada into new categories. This fall, MyFamily Canada will introduce memopet® ID, MyFamily’s first instantly personalizable walkwear collection, allowing retailers with existing MyFamily engraving systems to personalize collars and harnesses in-store using the same technology that helped transform the pet ID tag category.
Manufactured in Italy, memopet® ID also builds on MyFamily’s approach to pet identification by combining an integrated engravable nameplate with a dedicated holder for a traditional hanging ID tag and built-in NFC technology. The collection will make its Canadian trade-show debut at the Pets Canada Industry Show in Drummondville, Quebec, on September 20–21, followed by the Toronto show on October 7–8.
“For us, there’s a natural connection between where we started and where we’re going,” Stopnicki said. “Ten years ago, we saw an opportunity to take a very utilitarian category and make it more personal, engaging and relevant to the consumer. With memopet® ID, we’re taking that same idea beyond the traditional ID tag and bringing personalization directly into everyday walkwear. It feels like a very fitting way to begin our second decade.”
The anniversary reflects a broader evolution within pet retail. Identification remains rooted in safety, but the category increasingly combines function, fashion, technology, personalization and service—giving retailers new ways to connect an essential product with a more personal customer experience.
About MyFamily Canada
MyFamily Canada is the exclusive Canadian distribution partner for MyFamily S.r.l., an Italian manufacturer of pet identification products, engraving systems and pet accessories. Established in 2016, the company supplies pet ID tags, engraving systems, collars, leashes and harnesses to more than 1,600 retail locations across Canada. Its team brings more than 40 years of pet industry experience, including the development of European brands within the Canadian market, and provides product, merchandising and technical support to its retail partners.
Media Contact
MyFamily Canada
Phone: (514) 360-1945
Email: info@myfamily.ca
Website: https://b2b.myfamily.ca/