Pets at Home claims it is on course to deliver expected financial results for the year to March 28, 2024, in a trading update issued on Tuesday.

The UK’s largest pet retailer said in its FY24 pre-close statement:

• Q4 trends have been broadly as expected across Retail and Vets, and Group underlying profit before tax (PBT) for FY24 is expected to be £132m, in line with previous guidance.
• We have now successfully launched our new digital platform to consumers, in line with our commitment for launch this year, offering much improved user experience and functionality across our app and website.
• Our new Stafford DC continues to function well, supporting all store deliveries, with availability remaining at historically high levels. We look forward to transitioning our online sales across through H1 FY25 as previously targeted.
• We expect to finish the year in a net cash position, after having returned over £100m to shareholders in FY24 via dividends and buybacks, and after having incurred £3m more non-underlying costs than previously expected due to higher restructuring costs, taking the total non-underlying costs for FY24 c£27m.
• Looking ahead to FY25, we are comfortable with current analyst consensus expectations for Group underlying PBT1.

Pets at Home’s next scheduled update will be its FY24 preliminary results announcement on 29 May 2024.