New Pets at Home chief executive James Bailey said he can see “material progress” being made in the business’ turnaround, despite reporting falling profits and sales.
For the 52 weeks to March 26, 2026, Pets at Home group statutory profit before tax slipped 28.3% to £86.5m, and group statutory revenues slipped 0.8% to £1.46bn.
Group consumer revenue grew 1% to £1.98bn, while group underlying profit before tax slumped 30.2% to £92.8m.
Pets at Home’s retail arm reported a 1% dip in revenue in the period to £1.29bn and a 57.8% drop in underlying profits to £30.8m. By contrast, its vet group business reported a 5% jump in revenue to £688.1m and a 10.4% increase in profits to £83.8m.
Free cash flow at the business dropped 26.1% to £61.9m.
Nonetheless, new boss Bailey said he was confident that “material progress” had been made at the business over the last six months.
He said: “Pets at Home is a business with many strengths, a strong shared purpose and great potential and I am excited to lead it through its next chapter.
“I have spent my early weeks immersing myself in the business, meeting colleagues and practice owners, understanding our customers and learning about the capabilities we have across the group. I have found a business full of talented and committed people who want to do the best for our customers and their pets. This time in the business has increased my conviction on the opportunity to create value for customers, colleagues and investors of Pets at Home.
“We are the clear leader in the growing UK pet care market with a unique set of highly complementary businesses. We have considerable, sustainable competitive advantages, including our unrivalled reach through our 460 pet care centres, our sector leading vet business, our large and loyal customer base and well invested infrastructure.
“Material progress has been made over the past six months stabilising the retail business, delivering improved satisfaction and better availability. We have the opportunity now to build momentum through profitable volume led growth in retail, while continuing to execute the proven growth levers of our vet business and launch our insurance offering.
“We will not achieve this without the continued hard work, passion and dedication of our colleagues and partners. We have clear priorities for FY27 and from what I have seen so far, I am confident we can build a great future for Pets at Home, which I look forward to updating on later in the year.”
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