Pets at Home vet segment grows in H1, retail lags behind

Pets at Home’s group consumer revenue for the first half of FY2026, ending 9 October 2025, reached £1.1 billion ($1.3B/€1.2B), up 0.7% year-over-year (YoY). 

This was driven by growth in the vet group segment, which posted a 6.7% YoY increase to £376 million ($459M/€425M). The retailer attributed this to higher average transaction values and continued growth in Care Plan revenues, which are subscribed to by over 50% of its clients.

The British pet retailer opened 5 new practices and completed 3 vet extensions during the period, and maintains a pipeline of 10 new practice openings and 15 vet extensions in FY2026.

Consumer revenue drops 

On the other hand, retail consumer revenue dropped 2.3% YoY to £680 million ($830M/€768M) due to flat market growth.

“Q2 performance sequentially improved over Q1 as we saw a full quarter of strong online performance, partially offsetting weaker store sales. Food sales declined 0.3%, with accessories sales falling 5.9%, lagging a soft market,” says the company. 

The total group statutory revenue also fell 1.3% to £778.3 million ($949M/€880M), mainly due to insurance start-up costs, which increased group operating costs by 1.2% YoY. 

Subscriptions 

Subscriptions generated 14.6% of Group Consumer revenue, up from 11.4% YoY. This growth was driven by the Easy Repeat and Care Plans.

Meanwhile, members of its loyalty program, Pets Club, dropped 2.4% to 7.9 million due to a decline in their active retail consumer base. However, the increase in spend in the vet consumer base lifted the average consumer value to £185 ($226/€209).

In addition, Pets at Home notes that it has initiated a restructuring program to reduce Group overheads by £20 million ($24.4M/€22.6M), which means indirect expenses not associated with an activity. 

“This program will incur non-underlying costs of £6 million ($7.9M/€6.8M) to £8 million ($10.6M/€9.1M) in FY2026, but with a payback of less than 12 months as we expect a full year of benefit in FY27,” the company adds. 

Investments

Investments during the first half of the year have gone back to “normalized” levels at £50 million ($61M/€56.5M) from the peak of £75 million ($91.5M/€84.8M) back in 2023.

From May to October, Pets at Home has injected a total of £23.4 million ($28.5M/€26.5M), divided between capital expenditure mostly, and to support extensions, equipment and branding to a lesser extent. 

Over half of the total investment went into the Petcare Centre refit program, while the rest was for digitizing the business, vet group, pet care centers and distribution.

Outlook

Pets at Home maintains its annual guidance for underlying profit before tax (PBT) of £90 million ($110M/€102M), down from £100 million ($122M/€113M) in September amid continued softness in the UK pet retail market and its relative performance.

The firm also expects the vet group to register a PBT above £80 million ($97.6M/€90.4M), but has raised its forecast for losses to £5 million ($6.1M/€5.7M) due to the launch of its insurance in 2026.

“As we look to H2, we expect market growth to remain around 0%, with slightly positive retail LFL (like for like) growth expected as we lap very soft comps,” the company concludes.