Puppy boom leads Pets at Home to £80m profit

THE pandemic ‘puppy boom’ has handed Pets at Home a doubledigit sales boost, putting the retailer on track for a near-£80m profit.

In a third quarter trading update, the UK’s biggest pet care business said revenues increased to £302m during the 12 weeks to December 31.

That was 18pc higher than a year earlier, including a 70.7pc rise in sales made online.

The number of people in the firm’s ‘VIP’ puppy and kitten clubs – which offer discounts and advice services to customers – also grew 12pc to 6.2m.

Following the announcement, Pets At Home’s shares rose 2.2pc, or 8.8p, to 412p.

There has been a surge in demand for pets since the start of the coronavirus crisis, with national lockdowns forcing families to spend more time indoors and in their local areas.

Pets At Home, which sells pet food, accessories and services such as insurance and microchipping, has been able to keep its stores open due to its status as an ‘essential’ retailer. That particularly helped during the busy December period, when many other retailers were being battered by restrictions but Pets increased sales by 19.3pc.

The company said the strong performance means it is on track to deliver an underlying profit of £77m for the full year, although that would still be lower than last year’s £99.5m.

Accounting software giant Sage has emerged as another pandemic winner, as more business switch to its so-called cloud services so they can more easily work remotely.

Its shares rose 4.9pc, or 28.2p, to 601.2p, after it provided a cheery update on the final three months of 2020. During the period, Newcastle-based Sage said it had increased revenues by 1.4pc in the final three months of 2020 to £447m – including an increase in software subscriptions of 11pc.

Meanwhile, Countryside Properties rose 0.5pc, or 2p, to 430p as it reported progress with its plans to split the business.

The builder is in the process of splitting off its private housing division to focus more on social housing and regeneration projects, following pressure from investors.

And yesterday it said an internal reorganisation needed to push forward was set to be finished by March.

In an update on the final three months of 2020, Countryside also said it completed sales of 1,280 homes, an increase of 17pc on the previous year.

The average selling price too rose from £394,000 to £404,000, while the firm notched up further agreed sales of £1.3bn that are yet to complete.

Looking to the coming months, Countryside said it still expected ‘sustained levels of strong demand’. Chief executive Iain McPherson said the business had ‘entered the new financial year with a strong forward sales position’.

Video games developer Team 17 fell 3.6pc, or 30p, to 810p after revealing it had spent £12m acquiring full rights to the Golf With Your Friends title. The game – which has been bought by 5.5m people – lets up to 12 players compete against each other in virtual mini golf, with Team17 saying the deal will allow it to create new downloadable content.

Brick maker Ibstock surged higher by 7.3pc, or 14.4p, to 211.2p yesterday after saying that profits would be slightly above its previous £50m prediction.

The manufacturer said this was due to good demand for building materials, although disruption from the pandemic means its revenues still dropped 23pc to around £315m last year.

The FTSE 100 closed down 0.4pc, or 24.97 points, at 6715.42, while the FTSE 250 fell 0.4pc, or 87.74 points, to 20,793.72.