Pets at Home delivers solid Q3 performance

Although Pets at Home's retail sales declined by 1.1%, Vet Group sales increased by 5.0%. ‘Our dedicated pet care colleagues and veterinary partners helped us to deliver a solid Q3 performance, which will enable us to achieve an FY26 underlying PBT outcome in line with consensus expectations,’ said Ian Burke, Interim Executive Chair. The British pet care business released their Group Q3 trading update for FY2026 today, 28 January.

The retail consumer revenue down by 1.1% included positive a volume growth across food and accessories. Q3 saw sequential improvement in growth during a period where Pets at Home invested in its relative price position. Online remains the fastest growing channel, delivering low teens growth throughout the quarter. The total group statutory revenue went down 1.0% to £358 mio, with Group like-for-like2 (LFL) revenue down 0.7%.

The Vet Group consumer revenue rose by 5.0%, the performance was in line with the expectations.

The Q3 retail transactions were broadly flat. ‘This is currently a better underlying indicator of our customer health than Pet Club members which dropped 6.9% to 7.6 mio in part due to a change in methodology, which has also had a corresponding positive impact on Average Consumer Value,’ the company wrote.

The retail consumer satisfaction remained high, increasing +3pts vs Q3 last year led by improvements in value for money, colleague service and availability.

Subscription sales remained in strong growth, now representing 15.0% of the company's consumer revenues. 5% of Pets Club members now have an Easy Repeat subscription, and more than 50% of Vet clients having a Care Plan. Vet expansion plans are on track, with 10 new practices and 15 vet extensions to be delivered in FY26.

Q3 fell within the range of the expectations and Pets at Home expects to deliver FY26 underlying PBT in line with current consensus.

Interim Executive Chair Burke was pleased to report continued strong performance in the Vet business and sequential improvement in Retail, ‘as we continue to implement our Retail Turnaround Plan.’ One of the key early actions as part of this plan included ‘investing in our customer offer, reducing the price of over 1,000 products by an average of 12%, ensuring our customers know they can trust us to provide great value for them and their pets.’

Burke continued: ‘With a new CEO and CFO joining in spring, our focus for the remainder of the year is on building momentum behind our four turnaround plan priorities of Price, Product, Cost and Execution, to deliver our FY26 plan and to return our Retail business to sustainable sales and profit growth.’