The shares fell by 7% in early morning trading.
Advertisement
In the six months to 8 October, total revenues rose 6% to £404.5m ($625m), the company said in a statement, adding that the fastest-growing part of the business is the services business where revenues rose 26.2% to £41.9m.
Pets at Home continued to expand across the United Kingdom with the opening of six superstores and two Barkers stores, as well as a large number of salons and veterinary practices, in line with the FY16 rollout targets.
“Whilst trading in parts of the business has been weaker than expected, the core strategic drivers are performing well and in order to support their growth, we continue to invest in our colleagues and seamless shopping experience”.
There was also like-for-like sales growth of 1.8 per cent and merchandise revenue was up 4.1 per cent to £362.6m.
Pets at Home expects profits for the year to be “broadly in line with market expectations”.
In a year’s time, the firm will have 408 stores, up from 385.
But Liberum said: “We remain confident of PETS” long-term growth prospects and believe the progress made in other key areas (Advanced Nutrition, Services, VIP numbers) is supportive of this’.
Advertisement
VIP club members of 3.9m, an increase of over 300,000 since Q1. The company said trading was challenging for its Health & Hygiene products range, but added that strong comparatives for this segment will ease in the second half.
