LONDON (ShareCast) - (Sharecast News) - Pets at Home backed its full-year guidance on Tuesday but reported a dip in third-quarter revenue as it pointed to a softer performance from its retail business.
In an update for the 12 weeks to 2 January, the company said total group revenue fell 0.2% to £361.6m, with group like-for-like revenue down 1%.

Consumer revenue ticked up 2.3% to £468m, with continued growth in the Vet Group offset by a softer performance in the retail segment.

Vet Group revenue grew 21.3%, with LFL growth of 19.9%. Pets said Practices saw double digit revenue growth, supported by growth in subscriptions, visits, and average transaction values.

Retail revenue declined 2.4%, with LFL sales down 2.8%. The company said that as widely reported across the consumer sector, the third-quarter saw a more challenging UK consumer backdrop, with particularly weak footfall from October.

The group's digital performance improved, however, with continued strong growth in subscriptions.

Pets said it was on track to deliver "modest" growth in underlying pre-tax profit this year as set out in the first-half results.

"Against a still subdued consumer backdrop, we have maintained a disciplined gross margin performance, supported by strong Christmas seasonal sell through, and effectively managed our costs," it said.

Pets said the transition of its online orders to the Stafford distribution centre is underway. It now expects to exit its Northampton DC by the end of the financial year, completing its network optimisation.

As a result, the group now expects non-underlying costs of £11m in FY25, up from £7m previously, due to the phasing of costs associated with the Northampton exit. It also said it will incur all outstanding costs associated with the exit in FY25, having previously expected this to continue into FY26.

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