How pet lovers spent £1million on doggie jumpers this Christmas

ANIMAL lovers who bought Christmas presents for their cats and dogs put a rocket under sales for Pets at Home.

The supplier said the popularity of its grooming business – where pets can have luxury shampoo treatments, facials and blow dries – helped to grow revenue by 7.2pc in the 12 weeks to January 4. The retailer also sold half a million dog toys, more than 170,000 pet advent calendars and £1m worth of Christmas jumpers during the period.

However, demand from proud pet owners was not enough to help the retailer’s experiment with its seven specialist Barkers dog stores, which will close after a trial run.

George Salmon, equity analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said that despite the positive results, Pets at Home has relied on cutting prices to boost sales which has hit its margins.

He added: ‘The opportunity to grow its array of vet services and grooming salons is dependent on footfall in the core business rising, so it’s easy to see why keeping the customers coming in took priority.’ There’s plenty of work for incoming chief executive Peter Pritchard to do, Salmon said, particularly in dealing with the growing threat of online competition.

Hedge funds betting on a drop of Pets at Home’s share price suffered a blow as the results sent its stock price 5.9pc, or 10.8p higher, to 192.8p, The stock is up more than 18pc this year.