However, the company’s retail arm took a hit with profits plunging 16% to £72.9m amid rising costs and a 1.8% drop in revenues to £1.3bn as it traded in a more “subdued market”.
McGowan warns that the upcoming financial year will come with “its own challenges as we digest externally imposed cost headwinds and heightened macro uncertainty”.
Despite the company’s forecast of flat profits, McGowan is feeling confident the retailer has the right levers in place to navigate the year ahead.
More growth in vets
McGowan says the retailer’s vets arm has become the “jewel in the crown” for the business this year, with pre-tax profits soaring 23% to £75.9m and sales up 13% to £655m.
Reflecting on its success, she explains: “I think in the vets it’s based on the real quality and uniqueness of our joint venture model, which allows the vets to be the best vet they can be.”
Going forward, McGowan sees “loads of growth ahead” for the arm, with “more practices we can open, more extensions we can do, and more advanced practices” in terms of the services the veterinarians are able to offer.
“Vets is set really well for growth again, I don’t think it will be the double digit growth we’ve seen this year but we’re set really strongly,” she says.
Growing its subscriptions offer
Another area McGowan says presents a “huge opportunity” for the business is its subscriptions offer, which is used by around 4% of customers.
The service allows customers to receive regular orders of their pets’ favourite products and promises “market beating savings”.
McGowan says the retailer offers “a really strong incentive” for customers to collect their orders in stores, with a 10% off discount up for grabs compared to just 5% “if you deliver to home”.
“When shoppers come in, they’re also picking up things like accessories and poo bags, so it drives share of wallets,” she adds.
Insurance opportunities
Pets at Home is gearing up for the launch of its new insurance offering, which it claimed would bring a “disruptive” proposition to the £2bn pet insurance market.
Pets said its current insurance offer was “the largest vertical outside of [its] current core operations” and estimates that its own platform could contribute to around 10% of profits when its up and running.
McGowan says its own insurance offer will add “another lever of growth where we can take all of our assets, skills and capabilities, our data, pricing, and our distribution and deliver a really good quality good cross product to consumers”.
“It will have really simple claims, great pricing, and then we’ll partner with a carrier to provide the balance sheet capability and the underwriting, because that’s not an area that we have huge expertise in,” she explains.
McGowan says that the company has recruited a team who are “busy building away and getting FCA approval, figuring out the product and the pricing, the proposition, and building the customer journeys”.
With a stellar set of FY25 results and plans to boost retail, it seems Pets at Home is barking up the right tree with its ambitions for the year ahead.
However, the company’s retail arm took a hit with profits plunging 16% to £72.9m amid rising costs and a 1.8% drop in revenues to £1.3bn as it traded in a more “subdued market”.
McGowan warns that the upcoming financial year will come with “its own challenges as we digest externally imposed cost headwinds and heightened macro uncertainty”.
Despite the company’s forecast of flat profits, McGowan is feeling confident the retailer has the right levers in place to navigate the year ahead.
More growth in vets
McGowan says the retailer’s vets arm has become the “jewel in the crown” for the business this year, with pre-tax profits soaring 23% to £75.9m and sales up 13% to £655m.
Reflecting on its success, she explains: “I think in the vets it’s based on the real quality and uniqueness of our joint venture model, which allows the vets to be the best vet they can be.”
Going forward, McGowan sees “loads of growth ahead” for the arm, with “more practices we can open, more extensions we can do, and more advanced practices” in terms of the services the veterinarians are able to offer.
“Vets is set really well for growth again, I don’t think it will be the double digit growth we’ve seen this year but we’re set really strongly,” she says.
Growing its subscriptions offer
Another area McGowan says presents a “huge opportunity” for the business is its subscriptions offer, which is used by around 4% of customers.
The service allows customers to receive regular orders of their pets’ favourite products and promises “market beating savings”.
McGowan says the retailer offers “a really strong incentive” for customers to collect their orders in stores, with a 10% off discount up for grabs compared to just 5% “if you deliver to home”.
“When shoppers come in, they’re also picking up things like accessories and poo bags, so it drives share of wallets,” she adds.
Insurance opportunities
Pets at Home is gearing up for the launch of its new insurance offering, which it claimed would bring a “disruptive” proposition to the £2bn pet insurance market.
Pets said its current insurance offer was “the largest vertical outside of [its] current core operations” and estimates that its own platform could contribute to around 10% of profits when its up and running.
McGowan says its own insurance offer will add “another lever of growth where we can take all of our assets, skills and capabilities, our data, pricing, and our distribution and deliver a really good quality good cross product to consumers”.
“It will have really simple claims, great pricing, and then we’ll partner with a carrier to provide the balance sheet capability and the underwriting, because that’s not an area that we have huge expertise in,” she explains.
McGowan says that the company has recruited a team who are “busy building away and getting FCA approval, figuring out the product and the pricing, the proposition, and building the customer journeys”.
With a stellar set of FY25 results and plans to boost retail, it seems Pets at Home is barking up the right tree with its ambitions for the year ahead.
Please enter the verification code sent to your email:
Manage Cookie Consent
To provide the best experiences, we use technologies like cookies to store and/or access device information. Consenting to these technologies will allow us to process data such as browsing behaviour or unique IDs on this site. Not consenting or withdrawing consent, may adversely affect certain features and functions.
Functional
Always active
The technical storage or access is strictly necessary for the legitimate purpose of enabling the use of a specific service explicitly requested by the subscriber or user, or for the sole purpose of carrying out the transmission of a communication over an electronic communications network.
Preferences
The technical storage or access is necessary for the legitimate purpose of storing preferences that are not requested by the subscriber or user.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for statistical purposes.The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
Statistics
The technical storage or access that is used exclusively for anonymous statistical purposes. Without a subpoena, voluntary compliance on the part of your Internet Service Provider, or additional records from a third party, information stored or retrieved for this purpose alone cannot usually be used to identify you.
