Pets at Home has seen its full-year profits and sales rise, but warned that the costs from the COVID-19 pandemic will impact its business in the year ahead.
In the 52 weeks to March 26, the retailer said its underlying pre-tax profit rose to £99.5. Group sales in the year rose 10.2%, reaching £1 billion, marking the first time the retailer’s sales have surpassed that threshold.
This was driven by a 15.9% jump in like-for-like sales during its fourth quarter. Across the year, overall like-for-like sales increased 9.4%.
Meanwhile, the number of subscriptions across the group rose 23% to 865,000 during the period.
Pets at Home’s chief executive Peter Pritchard said: “In normal circumstances, it would have given me great pleasure to reflect on another year in which we have grown sales and profits and successfully executed our proven pet care strategy.
![Peter Pritchard, CEO, Pets at Home](https://www.overthecounter.news/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Pets-at-Home-Peter-Pritchard-2-300x144.jpg)
“These are, however, far from normal circumstances with the rapid, wide-ranging and devastating effects of COVID-19 having an unprecedented impact on all of our lives.”
Mr Pritchard said that trading in its current financial year is down year-on-year as a strong uplift in online sales was not enough to offset the reduced level of in-store sales.