Pets at Home's sales growth ‘below expectations’

The UK’s largest pet retail group said growth in its retail business was not at the levels it had expected, and as a result expected underlying pre-tax profit to reach £132m for the year, down from its previous target of £136m.

Lyssa McGowan, Chief Executive Officer, commented: “Our colleagues came together over our peak trading period to deliver a record sales performance, growing against a very strong performance in the prior year. While a slower market over peak meant our sales growth didn’t quite hit the levels we expected, the business remains well positioned to benefit from long term growth in the sector as we continue to win share and grow volumes across food and deliver differentiated performance through our unique vets business.

“Importantly, we will shortly follow up launching our new distribution centre with the launch of our new digital platform, in line with our target. Our new digital platform is a key foundation of our growth strategy, bringing vastly improved user experience to our consumers, and creating opportunities to improve cross-sell into accessories and further grow share of wallet. With these foundations now in place we are well positioned for the future.”

In its financial statement, the group reported:

“Our balance sheet remains robust and we expect to finish the year in a net cash position, having returned over £100m to shareholders via ordinary dividends and our ongoing share buyback.

“Our new digital platform build has progressed well and we will launch it to consumers in the coming weeks, having successfully trialled and tested it with a group of colleagues. The new platform offers a much improved customer experience and functionality across our app and website and is a key foundation for future growth, enabling us to deliver a succession of improvements in the years ahead.

“Returning accessories to growth is a key priority for the business and innovation will play a central role in this. In Q3 we introduced new premium brands including Lords & Labradors and Cocopup, and launched extended lifestyle ranges from Pawsome Paws Boutique. Innovation and the introduction of new ranges that stretch our brand appeal will remain a focus over the coming year.

“We continue to drive innovation in food, introducing new raw dog food brands across the estate, and will soon commence the roll out of Butternut Box. The transfer to Cranswick has now successfully completed.

“Year to date we have now opened 4 new pet care centres, and completed 33 refits. Within vets, we have opened 3 new practices, completed 16 extensions and converted 8 company-owned practices to Joint Venture ownership.

“Strong progress within vet talent, with improvements in recruitment, vacancy rate (down 33% YoY), and vet turnover, all underpinning robust consumer revenue performance. Our third physical clinical academy hub is in progress and we have made significant strides in our international recruitment.

“We have selected our partner for our new PMS system, Provet, a leading, cloud-based system that will unlock productivity benefits for our practice partners and enable better integration of our vets into our pet care platform. Rollout of the PMS will begin in FY25, after an initial pilot, and take 2 years to complete.

“In the year, we have fed over 1m pets for a day through our foodbank partnership with Blue Cross, and raised over £6m for charities.”