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PETS At Home(PETS) Fundamentals

Goldman Sachs Neutral 0.00 275.00 235.00 Downgrades

Trading Statement

Pets at Home Group Plc, the UK's leading pet business, today announces a scheduled trading update for the 16 week period from 31st March to 20th July 2017, compared with the 16 week period from 1st April to 21st July 2016.

Financial summary

· Group revenue growth of 5.0% to £256.5m
o Merchandise revenue growth of 2.8% to £216.4m
o Services revenue up 18.8% to £40.1m, including Joint Venture vet practice income up 19.7% to £16.2m

· Group like-for-like revenue growth of 2.7% reflecting strong growth in first opinion and specialist referral vet services, and a continuation of positive momentum in Merchandise trading
o Merchandise like-for-like revenue growth 1.5%
o Services like-for-like revenue growth 10.5%

· Merchandise price investment and operational cost savings tracking in line with plan. Profit outlook for FY18 in line with our expectations

Operational summary

· Good progress with Merchandise initiatives
o Everyday lower price repositioning continues with the addition of another major Advanced Nutrition dog food brand, James Wellbeloved. This follows the positive customer response to price changes earlier in the year across veterinary diets, private label dog Advanced Nutrition, pet essentials and Hills Science Plan
o Strong omnichannel revenue growth of 80%. Around 60% of omnichannel revenues now involve colleague assistance or the use of a Pets at Home store, through our Click & Collect, Order-In-Store and subscription services
o Launched a second product on our licensed medicine 'Subscribe and Save' service with Frontline Plus
· Vet Group continues to demonstrate good momentum across the business
o Growth supported by excellent performance from specialist referral centres
o Successful TV campaigns and promotion of our 'Best Start in Life' care plan driving high new client registrations for first opinion practices
· Opened 5 Pets at Home superstores, 2 Vets4Pets practices and 6 Groom Room salons. On track to deliver full year opening targets of around 10 superstores, 40-50 vet practices and 40-50 grooming salons

Ian Kellett, Group Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"We are pleased with our positive start to the year, delivered through another period of strong growth in our Vet Group and further momentum in Merchandise trading.
We have continued our everyday lower price repositioning and reduced the reliance on short term promotional discounts. We remain encouraged by the overall response to our pricing changes and by the number of both new customers and those we have welcomed back.
We have also strengthened our omnichannel capabilities substantially, with subscription services, Order-In-Store and Click & Collect performing particularly well. This underlines the importance of our store environment where customers benefit from products, services and colleague advice.

Whilst it is still early in the year, the financial outlook is in line with our expectations. We are confident the investments we are making to grow our veterinary business and to reposition our pricing and deliver everyday value for our customers are creating a strong platform for sustainable future growth."

Conference call
A conference call for analysts and investors will be held at 8.30am today. To join the call, please dial +44 20 3059 8125 and quote 'Pets at Home'. A recording will be available for seven days on + 44 121 260 4861 (passcode: 6791350#) and at http://investors.petsathome

Financial calendar

Pets at Home will host an investor and analyst day on 21st September 2017.
FY18 Interims will be announced on 28th November 2017.

Beaufort Securities Buy 190.85 - - Retains

Berenberg Buy 195.50 180.00 230.00 Upgrades

Q3 FY18 trading statement.

Pets at Home Group Plc ("Pets at Home") today announces a scheduled trading update for the 12 week period from 13th October 2017 to 4th January 2018, compared with the 12 week period from 14th October 2016 to 5th January 2017

Financial summary

· Group revenue growth of 9.6% to £223.3m

o Merchandise revenue growth of 9.0% to £193.4m, including omnichannel revenue up 77% to £13m

o Services revenue growth of 13.6% to £29.9m, including Joint Venture vet practice income up 19.3% to £12.1m

· Group like-for-like revenue growth of 7.2%

o Merchandise like-for-like revenue growth of 6.8%, with good performance in store sales, as well as from omnichannel initiatives - Order In-Store and subscription

o Services like-for-like revenue growth of 10.1%, reflecting strong growth in first opinion and specialist referral vet services

· All financial guidance*, including gross margin expectations, is unchanged

* Refers to financial guidance before exceptional items

Operational summary

· Excellent progress in Merchandise trading, where price repositioning has continued with the addition of further major brands in both dog and cat Advanced Nutrition

· New checkout process launched on the mobile website, delivering significantly improved online conversion and customer experience

· First Opinion vet practices delivering strong growth across both new and mature surgeries

· Opened two Pets at Home superstores, two Vets4Pets practices and five Groom Room salons. On track to deliver full year opening targets of around 10 superstores, 40-50 vet practices and 20-30 grooming salons

· The Barkers store trial has reached its conclusion. Existing stores will be closed over the coming year and exceptional costs of c£2m are expected in the FY18 income statement in relation to lease commitments and the write down of fixed assets

Ian Kellett, Group Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"I'm happy to report further progress in the third quarter, where trading momentum in our Merchandise division built over the Christmas period. In the year since we launched our lower pricing initiatives we have seen a really strong customer response to the investments we have made. At the same time, we continued to deliver strong growth in our veterinary business across both first opinion practices and specialist referral centres. Thanks again to colleagues across the Group who worked incredibly hard to deliver this result.

We again saw the benefits of our omnichannel capabilities, providing customers with innovative and convenient ways to shop, particularly through Order In-Store and subscription services. This unique combination of capabilities are brought to life by our store colleagues who provide the friendly expertise, advice and service that our customers really value."

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KKR & CO. L.P. 0%

sold when shorts started , will stay out. bb

Q1 Trading Statement

Pets at Home Group Plc: Q1 FY19 Trading Statement
A good start - on track to deliver our plan for the year



Pets at Home Group Plc, the UK's leading pet care business, today announces a scheduled trading update for the 16 week period from 30th March to 19th July 2018, compared with the 16 week period from 31st March to 20th July 2017.

Financial summary

· Group revenue growth of 8.1% to £277.4m

o Retail1 revenue growth up 6.9% to £245.0m, including omnichannel revenue up 47.3% to £19.1m

o Vet Group2 revenue up 18.4% to £32.4m, including Joint Venture vet practice income up 19.9% to £19.4m where mature practices are growing ahead of the market and our naturally fast growing younger practices are performing in line with our expectations

· Group like-for-like revenue growth of 6.1%

o Retail like-for-like revenue growth 5.3%

o Vet Group like-for-like revenue growth 13.6%

· H1 FY19 financial guidance points:

o Group gross margin dilution for the full year remains unchanged at (75-125) bps. Margin dilution will be greater in the first half, reflecting price investment phasing

o As part of our ongoing investment appraisal of new stores, we have decided not to proceed with the opening of two stores for which lease arrangements had been committed. The full cost of the leases, at c£1.6m, will be absorbed within underlying profit in the first half

· Full year profit and cashflow outlook remains in line with our expectations and guidance3

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Price cuts mean Pets at Home can purr once again

Interim Financial Results

Becoming the leading pet care specialist and returning to sustainable cashflow growth: interim financial results, strategic update and veterinary business review



· UK pet care market remains resilient, growing at c3-4%

· Pets at Home unique strategy winning with customers

o Retail business H1 FY19 LFL growth of 4.7%#, taking market share

o Vet practice H1 FY19 customer revenues growing at 15.4%

· New strategy to become a complete pet care company

· Taking action in our vet business to release cash profits and deliver more sustainable growth

· Building the right leadership team to deliver, having recently appointed our Chief Data Officer, COO of Retail and CEO of the First Opinion vet business to our Executive Management Team

· Group focus is to deliver sustainable free cashflow growth

Comment from Peter Pritchard, Group Chief Executive Officer

"Since becoming the Group CEO in May, I have had the opportunity to take stock of the wider group and shape my view of our future. What I have found fills me with confidence. Pets at Home is a healthy business and customers are loving what we do; responding to our price repositioning, investment in digital and the amazing service delivered by our vet partners. We have the ability to offer almost everything a pet owner needs, giving us opportunities our competitors simply don't have. Which is why my vision is to develop a complete pet care company, uniting our retail and vet businesses.

Reviewing our Vet Group has been a priority. I recognise we have grown at pace and more recently, have seen the pressure that rising costs and our fees are placing on this young business. We will need to recalibrate the business to deliver more measured growth, whilst maintaining our plan to generate significant cash profits.

We are focused on maximising our unique assets and delivering a plan for sustainable cashflow and profit growth. Given the success of the changes we have made in Retail, I'm confident we can do this."

First Opinion vet business review: recalibrating the business to deliver sustainable returns

We have completed a review of the First Opinion vet business, in recognition that the business' environment has evolved. Our findings have confirmed we are operating in a market growing at c5%, customer revenue growth is strong and we have a unique business model through shared ownership with Joint Venture Partners (JVPs). We also recognise the increasing cost pressures, including fees charged by Pets at Home, that certain practices are experiencing. We are taking action to put our business on a stronger long term footing and deliver significant cashflow.

We have 471 practices, of which the majority have already achieved, or are expected to remain on track to reach maturity. With our JV practices, we plan to rebalance and simplify the fee structure, to allow practices to mature more swiftly and generate returns for both Pets at Home and JVPs. We will also offer to buy back and consolidate up to 55 practices from JVPs. Around 25 of these will be operated as company managed practices, whilst we will consider the options for the remainder, which may result in us proposing to close them. For all practices which we offer to buy back, JVPs will not be expected to repay outstanding borrowings to any parties and Pets at Home will settle any liabilities for third party bank loans and leases on behalf of the JVP. We expect this to result in total non-underlying income statement costs of up to £49m and non-underlying cash costs of up to £27m.

Impact of future vet business actions on the interim financial statements

For practices which we will offer to buy back from JVPs, fee income has not been recognised within Vet Group revenue. A non-underlying charge of £29.0m has been recognised against Vet Group, and Group, gross profit to provide for the balance of funding provided by Pets at Home, guaranteed bank and lease obligations, and the cost of additional operating cash outflows forecast to be incurred by the Group through to buy-out. Further costs, including closure costs if we decide to close practices, are expected to be provided during H2 FY19 and FY20.

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Still heavily shorted at a little over 12% declared interest.

Trading Statement

Pets at Home Group Plc: Q3 FY19 Trading Statement
A strong quarter - on track to deliver our full year forecast

Pets at Home Group Plc, the UK's leading pet care business, today announces a scheduled trading update for the 12 week period from 12th October 2018 to 3rd January 2019, compared with the 12 week period from 13th October 2017 to 4th January 2018.

Financial summary

· Group revenue growth of 6.3% to £237.2m

o Retail revenue up 5.5% to £213.4m, including omnichannel1 revenue up 41.5% to £19.0m

o Vet Group revenue up 13.6% to £23.8m, including Joint Venture (JV) fee income up 2.5% to £12.4m. On a cash basis, JV fee income grew 9.3% to £13.2m; the difference resulting from non recognition of fee income for the 55 practices we intend to buyback from Joint Venture Partners (JVPs)

· Group like-for-like2 revenue growth of 5.1%

o Retail like-for-like revenue growth of 4.7%

o Vet Group like-for-like revenue growth3 of 9.1%

· FY19 results remain in line with our expectations and financial guidance4 reiterated:

o Group underlying PBT of £80-85m and underlying free cashflow of at least £55m

o Non-underlying income statement charge of up to £42m, including a cash charge of up to £13m relating to the Vet Group recalibration

o As we approach our financial year end and monitor the Brexit process, we may consider increasing our inventory holding by up to £8m

Strategic highlights

· UK pet care market remains resilient and the strength of our proposition means we continue to take share in the retail (in-store and online) and vet markets

· Customer KPIs continue to improve: VIP member visit frequency and spend is up and the number of VIPs who purchase products and a service has grown 16% y/y

· Retail price position remains competitive and the majority of price investment is complete

· Continued growth in revenue from pet care services5, with associated growth in the number of subscription customers6 to over 670,000

· Progress made across our Vet Group: customer revenue growth across all Joint Venture practices remains solid at 11.9% and we believe mature practices continue to grow ahead of the market. Our wider Vet Group recalibration is making progress and is on track

Peter Pritchard, Group Chief Executive Officer, commented:

"Momentum in Retail accelerated over the festive period, culminating in the biggest trading day of our entire history on the Saturday before Christmas. Our omnichannel business delivered exceptional performance, benefitting from investments made earlier in the year, including a new mobile website. This resulted in 4.7% like-for-like growth in Retail, an impressive 11% growth on a two year basis. In such a challenging climate, this performance was only made possible through the hard work of our colleagues across the business.

We saw good customer revenue growth across our entire Vet Group. In November, we reiterated the big opportunity to accelerate the maturity of our vet practices, but this needs to be achieved in a more sustainable way. As such, I am particularly pleased with how the recalibration of the Vet Group is taking shape; the engagement from JVPs has been positive and we have made good progress in our discussions with buyback practices.

We also celebrated another milestone as we reached £10m raised for national and local animal charities through our VIP loyalty club since its launch in 2012, another fantastic achievement.

We are working closely across the Group to maximise our assets and data as a pet care business, delivering initiatives that are resulting in an even better experience for customers. With the Executive Team appointments now complete, I know that we enter 2019 with growing momentum and we are well placed to deliver on our plans and commitments."

Conference call

A conference call for analysts and investors will be held at 8.45am today. To join the call, please dial +44 (0)330 336 9411 and use the participant access code 5163187. A recording will be available at http://investors.petsathome.com/

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