Pets at Home’s lockdown trading triggers sell off

FTSE 250 retailer Pets at Home (LON:PETS) saw its share price drop by 9.40% to 208.20p (as of 15:15 BST) after the company said that enhanced online sales were unable to mitigate the impact of store closures during current trading. Revenues for the year ended 26th March were up by 10.2% with strong like-for-like growth in the final quarter, although some of this spending was purchases brought forward by COVID-19 worries. Management said they could not make a clear forecast regarding the current year, but expected a material reduction in results.

Group CEO Peter Pritchard commented: “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. 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“.