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(Alliance News) - Pets products retailer and veterinary firm Pets At Home Group PLC said Friday it expects full-year profit to be modestly ahead of consensus expectations, after a strong sales growth performance in the first quarter
For the 16 weeks ended July 19, revenue grew 9.9% on a year prior to GBP303.4 million. This was helped by a 8.7% growth in Retail revenue to GBP266.4 million, whilst Vet Group revenue advanced 19% to GBP37.0 million.
On a like-for-like basis, revenue rose 8.0%, after Retail revenue jumped 8.2% and Vet revenue grew 6.2%.
"The momentum with which we exited financial 2019 has continued into the first quarter of financial 2020," Pets At Home Chief Executive Officer Peter Pritchard said.
"We have seen a strong sales performance across the business, particularly in Retail where like-for-like sales were 8.2% - an impressive 14% on a two year basis," Pritchard added. "We are also making good progress in our Vet Group. Our plans to buy out a number of joint venture vet practices have been carefully executed, whilst performance in the ongoing estate remains strong.
"We have the right foundations in place to accelerate the maturity of our vet practices in a sustainable way, delivering cashflow benefits to both Joint Venture Partners and Pets at Home," Pritchard continued.
"At this early stage in the year, and with ongoing uncertainty across the wider retail sector, we remain cautiously optimistic and focused on delivering our pet care strategy", Pritchard said.
For the full year, Pets At Home expects underlying profit to be "slightly above" the GBP85 million consensus market estimate. For the year ended March 28, Pets At Home generated underlying operating profit of GBP93.2 million from revenue of GBP898.9 million.
Shares in Pets At Home were 0.7% higher at 217.00 pence in London on Friday.
