Pets at Home claims it is focussing on future sales growth after reporting that consumer revenue was down 1.1% in its recent trading statement.
Ian Burke, the group’s Interim Executive Chair, said: “Our dedicated pet care colleagues and veterinary partners helped us to deliver a solid Q3 performance, which will enable us to achieve an FY26 underlying PBT outcome in line with consensus expectations.
"I'm pleased to report continued strong performance in our Vet business and sequential improvement in Retail, as we continue to implement our Retail Turnaround Plan. One of our key early actions as part of this plan included investing in our customer offer, reducing the price of over 1,000 products by an average of 12%, ensuring our customers know they can trust us to provide great value for them and their pets.
"With a new CEO and CFO joining in spring, our focus for the remainder of the year is on building momentum behind our four turnaround plan priorities of Price, Product, Cost and Execution, to deliver our FY26 plan and to return our Retail business to sustainable sales and profit growth.”
Here’s a summary of the group’s 12-week trading period to 1st January:
Group consumer revenue up by 0.8% to £472m.
- Vet Group consumer revenue up 5.0%, performance was in line with our expectations, with growth supported by average transaction values and growth in Care Plan revenues and plans.
- Retail consumer revenue down 1.1% included positive volume growth across food and accessories. Q3 saw sequential improvement in growth during a period where we invested in our relative price position. Online remains the fastest growing channel, delivering low teens growth throughout the quarter.
Total Group statutory revenue down 1.0% to £358m, with Group like-for-like2 (LFL) revenue down 0.7%.
Q3 retail transactions were broadly flat. This is currently a better underlying indicator of our customer health than Pet Club members which dropped 6.9% to 7.6m in part due to a change in methodology9, which has also had a corresponding positive impact on Average Consumer Value.
Retail consumer satisfaction remains high, increasing +3pts vs Q3 last year led by improvements in value for money, colleague service and availability.
Subscription sales remained in strong growth, now representing 15.0% of our consumer revenues. 5% of Pets Club members now have an Easy Repeat subscription, with more than 50% of Vet clients having a Care Plan.
Vet expansion plans on track, with 10 new practices and 15 vet extensions to be delivered in FY26.
Current trading and outlook: Q3 fell within the range of our expectations and we expect to deliver FY26 underlying PBT in line with current consensus.
