Pets at Home sales climb as customer numbers soar

Sales for the pet care retailer rose 18% year-on-year to £302m during the 12 week period to December 31, while like-for-like sales grew 17.6%.

Classed an essential retailer, Pets at Home reported growth across both its channels, with store revenues up 12.3% notwithstanding the national lockdown in November.

The retailer added more customers to its VIP Puppy and Kitten club during the quarter, up 12% to year-on-year to 6.2m as more people bought pets amid the pandemic.

61% of VIP members that joined in the previous quarter also shopped again at Pets at Home, 18% of which shopped across more than one channel.

Pets at Home also received an average of 10,000 new client registrations per week for its First Opinion veterinary practices over the last six months.

The retailer has pivoted its operations to reflect how customers want to shop during lockdown, including the addition of virtual consultations, and contactless click and collect.

During the quarter, Pets at Home opened two new smaller concept stores in Camden and Putney, the success of which will influence its decision for a wider rollout within thew M25.

Chief executive Peter Pritchard said: “Against a backdrop of continued uncertainty our pet care model remains robust, with our performance during the third quarter testament not only to the advantages of our scalable omnichannel pet care platform and unique joint venture veterinary model but also the hard work and commitment of all our colleagues across the group, to whom I express sincere thanks.

“Mindful of this challenging environment, I remain confident that the changes we have made to our business enable us to continue providing essential pet care to our customers in a safe and appropriate manner, not only through strict adherence to the protocols which we introduced across our stores and veterinary practices at the onset of the pandemic, and continue to strengthen, but also in a number of other ways, from contactless collection and delivery of pet products to virtual health care consultations.

“I am very pleased with the progress we have made in this quarter, in particular how we have adapted to the changing environment in which we operate. 

“We remain as determined as ever to create the best pet care platform in the world, and our strong liquidity gives us the capacity to make the right investments to support our ambition”.