Pets at Home Group Plc today (Thursday) announced its preliminary results for the financial year ended 27 March 2014.

Financial highlights

·        Performance in line with management expectations at the time of IPO, underlying EBITDA of £110.7m, up 12.4% year-on-year

·        Revenues grew 11.2% to £665.4m, reflecting store portfolio expansion and strength across food, accessories and services

·        Like-for-like sales growth of 2.4%, driven by VIP Club success, strength in Advanced Nutrition, omni-channel, and the growing maturity of Groom Rooms and vet practices

·        Like-for-like growth in revenues generated within the Joint Venture veterinary practices of 14.0%, underpinning fee income growth

·        Underlying EBITDA margin expansion of 17bps to 16.6%, reflecting the leverage from our services business, which represents 7.6% of Group revenues (FY13: 5.3%)

Operational highlights

·        32 new stores opened during the year, taking our total store portfolio to 377

·        Now the largest small animal veterinary services provider in the UK with 277 practices, reflective of 47 in-store and 22 standalone openings in the year

·        Successful integration of Vets4Pets, acquired March 2013, with a single support office now established for the combined vet business

·        Largest number of Groom Rooms opened in a single year; 42 new salons, bringing the portfolio to 129

·        VIP Club reached 2m members at the end of FY14, 1.5m members added in the year

·        Pets At Home website relaunched in January 2014, now featuring a wider range of products, fewer clicks to checkout and enhanced presentation of our pet services

Nick Wood (above), Chief Executive Officer, commented: “It has been a pivotal year for Pets at Home. Our results demonstrate how we are building on our leading position in the UK pet care market, continuing to innovate and grow the business. I am excited with the progress made in our Vets Group, which through the acquisition of Vets4Pets and the opening of 69 new practices, has become the UK’s largest small animal veterinary services provider. None of this would have been possible without the commitment of our outstanding colleagues and I thank them all for their dedication.

"We are focused on delivering the growth strategy we set out to shareholders at IPO. Whilst the lack of a sustained increase in consumer disposable incomes gives some caution to the outlook, I believe the potential of our retail and services businesses will enable us to deliver our strategy and achieve long-term returns.”