Pets at Home warns of lower profit in 2026 financial year
Pets at Home has said its full year underlying pre-tax profit will be in line with previous guidance at £133 million, but has warned that profits will be lower in the new financial year.
In a pre-close statement ahead of its preliminary results announcement for the 52 weeks to 27 March, the retailer said fourth quarter trends were broadly as planned across both its retail and veterinary divisions, despite challenging trading conditions.
Pets at Home said it finished the year with record numbers of Pets Club members and higher customer satisfaction. It also completed a network optimisation and the transition of online sales to a new Stafford distribution centre.
Lyssa McGowan, Pets at Home chief executive, said: “We are making good progress in delivering our strategy of building the world’s best pet care platform, although the market remains challenging with subdued consumer confidence and the business facing significant external cost headwinds in 2025.
Never Miss a Retail Update!“Our vets business is delivering very strong growth and continuing to outperform the market, with a robust pipeline of new openings in place for the coming year leveraging our unique practice owner model.
“In retail, we’re confident that with our major infrastructure investments behind us, we are well placed for future growth as the short-term pressures ease and the consumer environment improves.”
Looking ahead, Pets at Home said it expects the current market conditions and “subdued” consumer backdrop to continue into the new financial year. Despite this, it expects to outperform the market in its retail arm as it benefits from investments in digital.
However, the company will be impacted by £18 million in costs relating to changes to the National Living Wage and National Insurance payments.
As a result, it expects group underlying pre-tax profit to come in at between £115 and £125 million for the 2026 financial year.
