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Pets at Home has revealed that its underlying profit-before-tax rose 14.1% to £54.5m for the half year ended 10 October 2024.
The retailer stated that this was supported by the strong growth in its vet group, with retail impacted by the slower sales growth.
Alongside this, its total group revenue saw growth of 1.9% to £789.1m, with group like-for-like revenue up 1.6%.
Its vet group revenue growth remained strong at 18.6% with LFL of 18.2%, while its practices delivered double digit revenue growth supported by growth in subscriptions, visits, and average transaction values.
Pets at Home’s retail revenue saw growth of 0.1% with flat LFL which it called a resilient performance against a declining retail market and with the previously flagged impact of its new digital platform transition.
As a result the company expects its underlying PBT for FY25 to grow modestly from last year.
It is also planning for current rates of market growth to persist through the remainder of this year, lower than initially planned.
Lyssa McGowan, Pets at Home CEO, said: “The first half of FY25 was characterised by a subdued market, against which we outperformed. In Vets, our differentiated joint venture model continues to drive material outperformance over peers. In Retail, our customer satisfaction is excellent, our price position is strong, and we have tight control of our cost base.
“However, we are operating in an unusually subdued pet retail market which we now expect to continue through H2. We are confident this will be temporary, and growth will return to historical norms with the longer-term attractive outlook for the UK pet care market unchanged.The bulk of our investments and peak operational risk are behind us and our market leadership and well invested platform underpin our confidence in continued outperformance.”
