Pets at Home targeting 40 new openings
Pets at Home has said it is targeting between 35 and 40 new openings over the medium term, whilst also continuing investment into its existing estate.
The pet care retailer said it would be continuing to open new centres in attractive, particularly urban, catchments.
Pets at Home also said its rent reduction programme is progressing well, achieving an average reduction of 20% at property leases where it has actively sought to reduce rent.
The retailer said it expects to completed 40 lease renegotiations by the end of the current financial year.
This comes as Pets at Home releases its preliminary results for the 2024 financial year, a period during which it opened 5 new stores and completed 41 refits.
During the 52-week period ending 28 March 2024, the retailer recorded a consumer revenue figure of £1.9bn, a year-on-year increase of 6.9%. Underlying pre-tax profit saw a year-on-year fall of 3.2% to £132m, which Pets at Home said was in part due to a £12.4m year-on-year increase in non-underlying costs.
Lyssa McGowan, Pets at Home chief executive officer, said: “FY24 has been a pivotal year for the business, having delivered some key building blocks of our platform for long term growth. I am proud of the progress we have made in the year; we relaunched our brand, opened our new DC (distribution centre), built our new digital platform, made progress in our sustainability agenda, and enhanced our physical estate. The business has come together brilliantly to navigate any challenges faced this year, and we have delivered some key milestones of our strategy.
Our medium-term strategy and financial framework is unchanged and, looking ahead, the fundamental strengths of the business position us well to deliver growth. We hold a leading position in a structurally growing market, with an unrivalled retail store network, and a unique, differentiated and integrated vet business. We know the nation’s pets better than anyone else, with over 10 years of analytical data on 10 million pets, and we now have a best-in-class digital platform, and a modern efficient DC.”