Pets at Home suffers quarterly sales fall

Pets at Home’s statutory group revenue slipped 1% to £358m in the quarter to January 1, when like-for-likes were down 0.7%.

However, group consumer revenue nudged up 0.8% to £472m. The veterinary division’s sales were ahead 5%, but retail consumer revenue was down 1.1%.

The retailer reported “sequential improvement in growth during a period where we invested in our relative price position”. 

Retail transactions over the quarter were “broadly flat” but subscription sales, which now account for 15% of consumer revenues, “remained in strong growth”.

Former Waitrose boss James Bailey will become chief executive of Pets at Home in March. 

Pets at Home interim executive chair Ian Burke said full-year underlying profit will be in line with consensus expectations.

He said: “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 plan and to return our retail business to sustainable sales and profit growth.”