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(Alliance News) - Pets At Home Group PLC on Wednesday posted a surging profit thanks to its "resilient" pet care unit as a boom in pet ownership helped it propel to record sales growth.
Pretax profit for the financial year March 31 rose 40% to GBP148.7 million from GBP106.3 million a year ago. Revenue climbed to GBP1.32 billion from GBP1.14 billion.
The Cheshire, England-based animal products retailer issues a final dividend of 7.5 pence, bringing the total dividend to 11.8p per share, up 48% from 8.0p.
Meanwhile, the firm posted an annual 65% surge in underlying pretax profit to GBP144.7 million from GBP87.5 million as like-for-like sales jumped up 16%. For its financial year 2023, it expects an underlying pretax profit of GBP151.0 million.
The firm's planned 670,000 square foot distribution facility in Stafford will come onstream in summer 2023, it said. Pets At Home expects it to provide capacity to support 10 years of revenue growth.
Pets at Home vowed to keep prices competitive despite cost pressures. The company said it is "not immune to current industry-wide inflationary pressures, in particular the impact of raw material, energy and freight costs".
But it added: "We have clear plans in place to keep our pricing competitive for customers, while doing everything we can to reduce our own costs."
Pets At Home shares were 7.7% higher at 302.54 pence each in London on Wednesday morning.
By Tom Budszus; tombudszus@alliancenews.com
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