Pets at Home maintains FY guidance, hails 'resilient' start to year

(Sharecast News) - Pets at Home maintained its full-year guidance on Thursday as it hailed a "resilient" start to the year. In the 16 weeks to 18 July, total group revenue rose 1% to 441.1m, with group like-for-like revenue growth of 0.5%.

Consumer revenue ticked up 1.5% to £576.6m, supported by growing average customer spend and 3% growth in active Pets Club members to 8 million. Pets said this helped to offset the impacts of market normalisation - as the pet population stabilises - and slowing inflation.

Vet Group revenue was up 17.1%, driven by higher average spend and growth in visits, it said.

Meanwhile, retail revenue was down 0.8%, as expected, with a stronger performance through the second half of the first quarter.

The company made no changes to guidance for FY25 and said it remains comfortable with current analyst consensus for group underlying pre-tax profit of £144m.

Chief executive Lyssa McGowan said: "We are pleased to have delivered a resilient Q1, with our growth improving through the quarter as our offer continued to resonate well with UK pet owners.

"The benefits of our investments in logistics, stores and digital are coming through, and our unique joint venture vets continued to deliver differentiated performance, growing visits and attracting new customers, driven by our passionate, independent practice owners."