Pets at Home boss Lyssa McGowan on her growth ambitions for FY26

Pets at Home saw its pre-tax profits rise 14% in the 12 months to 27 March, in what it described as a year of “profound transformation”.

The pet specialist credited the strong growth of its veterinary arm and strengthened online proposition behind its profits surging to £120.6m, up from £105.7m the year before.

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.

Pets at Home unveiled its easy repeat subscription service in April, as part of its focus on customer experience and value.

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.

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