Pet products retailer grows sales to £777.8m

PET products specialist Pets at Home, based in Cheshire, has seen revenue grow by 6.7% to £777.8m in the year to March 31 (FY 2015: £729.1m).

Pre-exceptional EBITDA of £124.7m, excluding £0.8m of M&A related expenses, represented a 4.2% increase on the previous year (FY15: £119.6m).

The company is progressing despite challenges from its seasonally-affect health and hygiene category and the impact of the introduction of the National Living Wage which is expected to be £2m in the 2017 financial year.

Group chief executive Ian Kellett said: “I am pleased to report another year of good progress.

“Despite some seasonal challenges to our health and hygiene sales, we have seen excellent performance in our strategic growth drivers of advanced nutrition, VIP, vet and grooming services.
 
“Together with refinancing benefits, this contributed to pre-exceptional earnings per share growth of 11.2%. Our strong cashflow has enabled us to increase the ordinary dividend to shareholders by 39%, to a payout ratio of 50% of earnings, whilst investing for growth through acquisitions of veterinary specialist referral centres.

“We have enjoyed 25 very successful years as a business and enter our 26th year confident in the future.

“The pet market has proved over time to be more resilient than general retail, so whilst consumer confidence may be more fragile, we believe our drive to become more specialist and most loved by customers will deliver further progress.”

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