Pets at Home Group Plc, the UK’s leading specialist retailer of pet food, accessories and services, today announces its preliminary results for the 52 week period to 26th March 2015.
Financial highlights
· Total revenue growth of 9.6% to £729.1m
o Merchandise revenues grew 8.3% on the prior year; Food revenues up 9.8% and Accessories revenues up 6.6%
o Services revenues grew 25.2% on the prior year; fee income from Joint Venture veterinary practices up 30.7%
· Like-for-like revenue growth 4.2%, driven by strength in Advanced Nutrition, Health & Hygiene, VIP Club, Services and Omni-channel
o Merchandise like-for-like revenue growth 3.7%
o Services like-for-like revenue growth 10.7%
· Gross margin 54.2%, +40bps on the prior year
· Underlying EBITDA* £121.3m, up 9.6%, margin of 16.6%
· Profit before tax £87.0m, basic EPS 13.5 pence
· Underlying free cashflow** £92.8m, conversion 77% and leverage 1.6x net debt/underlying EBITDA
· Total dividend payable for FY15 of 5.4 pence per share, payout ratio of 40%
Operational highlights
· Building customer offering and loyalty across multiple platforms
o VIP Club reached 3.2m members, up from 2.0m in FY14. Card swipe rate at store tills represented 65% of revenues in Q4, compared with 61% during Q3 FY15
o In Advanced Nutrition, our flagship private label Wainwright’s, grew 44.1% to £40.1m
· Increasing scale through new openings
o 25 stores (gross), 61 veterinary practices, 50 Groom Rooms
Evolution to a new divisional Group structure
· Ian Kellett appointed CEO of newly created Retail Division
· Sally Hopson appointed CEO of newly created Services Division
Nick Wood, Chief Executive Officer, commented:
“I am delighted to announce another year of progress as we continue to deliver on our targets for growth, with strong cash flows allowing us to deliver a dividend payment at the top end of our commitment.
We have seen excellent progress in Advanced Nutrition, a product area that benefits significantly from the specialist knowledge of our highly-trained colleagues and where we have a strong market presence through our private brand, Wainwright’s. We have also seen excellent growth in pet services as we roll-out new vet practices and groom rooms and the existing estate continues to mature. I am particularly proud of our colleagues whose passion for pets mirrors that of our customers and helps to keep our focus firmly on customer engagement.
With our business growing strongly, we have decided that now is the right time to implement a new divisional structure to drive performance further. It’s a sign of our strength that we have two people of the calibre of Ian Kellett and Sally Hopson to take responsibility for our Retail and Services Divisions, as we look forward to another year of expansion and profitable growth.”
