Pets at Home maintains yearly guidance despite revenue loss

Pets at Home maintains yearly guidance despite revenue loss

Growth in the British pet retailer’s vet sector helped offset a slow quarter for sales.

Pets at Home maintained its profit guidance after releasing its trading statement for Q3 of the fiscal year (FY) 2025, which ended on 2 January 2025.

Overall revenue declined by 0.2% to £361.6 million ($449.5M/€431.1M), with like-for-like (LFL) revenue down by 1% during the quarter.

Retail revenue dropped by 2.4%, and LFL retail revenue declined by 2.8%. The company blamed the loss on a challenging UK retail environment during the quarter.

Pets at Home also faces expenses thanks to the departure from its Northampton distribution hub. The move created non-underlying costs of £11 million ($13.6M/€13.1M), up from £7 million ($8.7M/€8.3M) in previous guidance.

Buoyed by vet services

The retailer’s vet group performed well during the quarter, offering a beacon in a gloomy report. Vet revenue grew by 21.3% during the quarter, with LFL revenue increasing by 19.9%.

Consumer revenue, which includes revenues from the group’s jointly owned vet practices, increased 2.3% to £468 million ($582M/€558M).

Outlook

Pets at Home maintains its guidance set out at the end of Q2. “We are on track to deliver modest growth in underlying [profit before tax] this year as set out [in] our H1 results,” it says.

“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.”

The company said last fall, when it released its earnings for the first half of FY2025, that it “outperformed” in H1 2025.

Pets at Home expects to finish its departure from Northampton by the end of FY2025, which will lead to higher expenses this year but lower financial outlays for FY2026.