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Pets At Home Group PLC on Thursday said it delivered a ‘record’ performance in its recently ended financial year, despite reporting a drop in annual profit. The pet product retailer posted a pretax profit of £122.5 million in the year that ended March 30. This represented a fall of 18% from the £148.7 million achieved the year before. Pets at Home said the fall in profit reflected the gain on the sale of its Specialist Group in financial 2022 and the costs of bringing its new distribution centre on-stream in financial 2023. Revenue in the recent year totalled £1.40 billion, up 6.6% from £1.32 billion the previous year. On a like-for-like basis, revenue grew by 7.9%. The Cheshire, England-based firm said trading at the start of financial 2024 is ‘strong’, with sales in the first few weeks of the year in-line with the financial 2023 exit rate. ‘Our record performance over the past year demonstrates that our compelling pet care offer continues to resonate strongly with consumers. Through our unique blend of products, services and expert advice we were able to serve pet owners better, grow our consumer base, and win more market share, building on our leading position in the UK pet care market,’ said Chief Executive Lyssa McGowan. For financial 2024, Pets at Home expects sales to grow in line with its medium-term target of 7%. It added it is ‘comfortable’ with the current analyst consensus of £136 million for underlying pretax profit in financial 2024. In financial 2023, underlying pretax profit totalled £136.4 million. Pets at Home declared a final dividend of 8.3 pence per share, up 11% from the previous year and bringing the total dividend for the year to 12.8p. Shares in the firm were down 3.9% at 352.80p in London on Thursday morning. Pets at Home will release its first-quarter results on August 3. Copyright 2023 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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