Pets at Home sees ‘strong’ festive sales

Pets at Home had its “biggest trading day” the Saturday before Christmas, as the retailer reported an increase in sales over the festive period.

In the 12 week period from 12 October 2018 to 3 January 2019, the chain saw its group revenue increase by 6.3% to £237.2m while its retail revenue was up 5.5% to £213.4m. The group’s like-for-like revenue saw 5.1% growth; its retail and vet group saw like-for-like revenue increase by 4.7% and 9.1% respectively.

Compared with its last trading update, its vet group made “progress” with customer revenue growth across all joint venture practices at 11.9%. In its previous update, Pet at Home said it would be closing 30 of its vet practices as it saw a 80.5% drop in pre-tax profits.

It also said in the lead up to Brexit, it would spend up to £8m stockpiling inventory.

Peter Pritchard, group chief executive officer, said: “Momentum in retail accelerated over the festive period, culminating in the biggest trading day of our entire history on the Saturday before Christmas. Our omnichannel business delivered exceptional performance, benefitting from investments made earlier in the year, including a new mobile website.

“This resulted in 4.7% like-for-like growth in retail, an impressive 11% growth on a two year basis. In such a challenging climate, this performance was only made possible through the hard work of our colleagues across the business.”

He added: “We saw good customer revenue growth across our entire vet group. In November, we reiterated the big opportunity to accelerate the maturity of our vet practices, but this needs to be achieved in a more sustainable way. As such, I am particularly pleased with how the recalibration of the vet group is taking shape; the engagement from JVPs has been positive and we have made good progress in our discussions with buyback practices.”