19 Sept 2025
Although its vet group continues to grow, Pets at Home’s store sales have declined this year.
Vet Times
Job Title
The Vets for Pets, inside a Pets at Home in Birstall, Leeds.
Pets at Home has announced the departure of chief executive Lyssa McGowan.
The company announced she had “left the business with immediate effect,” with non-executive chair Ian Burke assuming the role of executive chair on an interim basis until a permanent CEO has been appointed.
As part of the announcement, Pets at Home also revised its expected profit outlook to between £90 million to £100 million, having previously revised it to £110 million to £120 million earlier this year.
The company reported that the underlying pet retail market “remained subdued” through Q2 and was “declining slightly year to date”.
It continued: “Against this, we have seen the performance of the retail business improve sequentially, narrowing the gap to the market, but the rate of improvement has been below expectations.”
Despite “double-digit digital sales growth” in the online retail market, physical store sales were reported to have declined by 5% over the year to date.
The news caused shares to plunge on Thursday by almost 23%.
However, its vet group “continues to deliver high-single digit sales growth” and is on track to complete 10 openings and 15 extensions over the year, along with another year of profit progress.
In the statement, group bosses added: “The board would like to thank Lyssa McGowan for her commitment to leading the business since she became CEO of the business in 2022.”
Ms McGowan received an OBE for services to retail in June.
The group had reported in a trading update in July it was operating “against a subdued market backdrop and uncertain consumer environment”.
