Review of the operational performance
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"During the course of the year we invested significantly in building the foundations for our future growth, opening 32 new stores, commissioning our second distribution centre, establishing a global sourcing operation in Hong Kong and enhancing both our product offer and in-store experience," says Nick Wood.
"Our service proposition continues to expand, with the opening of 18 new grooming salons and 19 Companion Care in-store veterinary practices, bringing the total number of salons to 61 and vet practices to 92. We will continue to expand these key services as they are valued highly by our customers.
"Our 5,900 colleagues continue to be one of our key strengths. We took great pride in being placed second in The Sunday Times ranking of the 25 Best Big Companies To Work For in 2012.
"This external recognition supports our own internal measures which confirm we have a team of highly engaged and motivated colleagues who work together to provide the highest levels of customer service.
"We continue to prioritise and support our colleagues with training and development to ensure we deliver the highest standards of pet welfare and advice. In the first half year we have doubled the number of qualified nutrition consultants in our stores and also delivered the training to deliver a microchipping service which is now available in every store.
"We have further expanded our product ranges in store and via our website. We introduced new ranges with contemporary styling in Dog and Cat bedding and expanded our premium food offer for both dogs and cats. Here we launched our own luxury cat food range "Seriously Good" and "Pickle's" cat treats as well as successfully launching "Spencer's Deli", our premium dog food range.
"We also added additional services such as product personalisation. The launch of Pets at Home pet insurance in early 2011 went well and resulted in a pleasing performance over the year. We have invested heavily in establishing our second distribution centre, which opened in July 2011, becoming fully operational in March 2012. Our online fulfillment operation was successfully embedded into this distribution centre in the second half of the year. We will capture the full benefit of this investment in 2012/13.
"Whilst a significant proportion of capital investment was focused on future growth, we continued to upgrade and improve both our aquatic systems and animal housings to ensure pet welfare standards are maintained to the highest possible standard.
"During the year we opened three in-store advice and adoption centres for dogs, operated by the Dog‟s Trust. These have been funded by the Support Adoption for Pets Charity, which raised more than £1.7m in the year (well ahead of the £1.3m raised in the previous year) through the efforts of our colleagues and via donations received from the rehoming and adoption of 62,000 pets from in-store adoption centres.
"We are delighted that, since opening, 90 dogs have been rehomed. In addition, more than £1m of grants were made to pet re-homing charities across the UK. We have made strong progress in the first half of the current financial year with strong returns from areas where we have invested in particular in range and merchandising development in dog and cat advanced nutrition.
"We have seen encouraging results from our latest TV advertising campaign particularly where we have advertised our expertise in the areas of flea and worming, and nutrition consultations."
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