Pets at Home CEO exits as profits downgraded

The petcare retailer has announced that McGowan, who has been chief executive of the petcare retailer since 2022, has stepped down “with immediate effect” and that it would be cutting its annual profit guidance for a second time this year.

The retailer said the underlying pet retail market had remained “subdued”, with the rate of improvement in its retail business “below expectations” and store sales declining 5% year to date. 

Digital sales growth had been stronger, with its new subscription service and improvements in its digital platform helping to drive double-digit growth online.

The retailer said in a statement: “Existing guidance assumed a central scenario for retail of 1% market growth against which we expected to return to market outperformance through FY26 as the investments we made in digital bore fruit.

“In light of the performance gap we have seen in retail versus our plan, we now expect FY26 underlying PBT in the range £90-£100m.”

Prior guidance had been set at £110m-£120m at the end of July.

Pets’ non-executive chair Ian Burke has assumed the role of executive chair until a permanent chief executive is recruited.

The retailer said: “The board would like to thank Lyssa McGowan for her commitment to leading the business since she became CEO of the business in 2022.”