Pets At Home Releases Financial Highlights

The UK chain of pet superstores, Pets at Home, has reported sales up 10.4% over Christmas compared to the same period last year. The company this week released like for like sales figures for the 6 weeks to 8 January 2009.

Privately owned, Pets At Home cleverly postponed plans last year to float on the stock market. For its financial year to date, beginning 28 March 2008, PAH (a symbol as yet unclaimed in any equities market) reports like for like sales up 7.2% and total sales up 13.4%. This latest report from the company is upbeat in what CEO Matt Davis calls a challenging economic environment.

Matt Davies writes:

"I am delighted with our performance over the Christmas period and our sales growth for the year to date. Our strategy of expanding and innovating within our own brand ranges has also delivered an improved margin.

"Our food sales have been particularly encouraging over the Christmas period and we continue to delight our customers with exciting products, like our new cat and dog deli range of natural treats. The cold winter has also attracted more and more customers to our extensive wildlife range, especially foods rich in fat and protein to help birds combat the big freeze."

PAH sales for the year 2007-2008 totalled £354.6m. Earnings for the period before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization were £60.7m.