Pets at Home, ranked Top100 in RXUK Top500 research, has seen total group revenues grow 5.8% year-on-year for Q4 2021 to £319.4m as growth in pet ownership continues to drive spending. Revenue growth across its omni-channel offering was up 16.7% on the year.
Much of the growth has come from a 13% rise in subscriptions to its VIP club of users, reaching 7 million by year end. These consumers are also big omni-channel users, with 27% of them shopping across multiple channels in 2021.
The company’s veterinary practice and per care plan also saw strong growth, with new client registrations for its First Option practice averaging around 9200 per week and pet care subs rising by more than 1.4m and generating more than £115m.
The retailer has also continued to invest in its digital transformation initiative, Polestar, and says the launch of a single login functionality enabling frictionless customer access to all of our pet products and services, is imminent.
Pets at Home’s deliver from store capability broadened during the quarter and, in conjunction with its one-hour Click and Collect service, is already enabling the retailer to fulfil approximately one third of online orders through its store network, embedding best-in-class fulfilment for customers and generating operational efficiencies relative to a fully centralised model.
The retailer is also looking to try and mitigate inflationary pressures through rent reductions, improved procurement and other operational efficiencies.
Peter Pritchard, Group Chief Executive Officer, comments: “Our unique, omnichannel pet care strategy continues to deliver strong revenue growth, reflecting continued momentum in customer acquisition, engagement and spend as the benefits of our ongoing investment in capacity and capability really start to deliver.
“We are firmly on track to report a record year of sales and profit growth, and I am incredibly grateful to all of our fantastic colleagues and Partners across the Group for their hard work and commitment to helping us become the best pet care business in the world.”
He adds: “I remain confident that the combination of our strategic investments, strength and depth of our exceptional leadership team and successful initiatives to increase operational efficiencies across the Group will underpin sustainable, long-term and profitable growth.”
