Purrfect Pets at Home

Underlying cash profit, after IPO costs, rose 12 per cent to £111m on like-for-like sales growth of 2.4 per cent. Each part of the business performed well, with progress driven by a number of different factors. Specifically, the group's customer loyalty scheme - the VIP Club - grew membership by a third to 2m and accounted for more than 50 per cent of store revenue. January's website relaunch also drove sales growth and the maturing veterinary and grooming salons improved profitability. Indeed, veterinary and grooming are key to Pets' future. While they generated just 7.6 per cent of group revenues, they are also highly operationally geared so - as they mature - profitability should jump.

Meanwhile, sales from higher-margin own-label dog food brand Wainwrights jumped 27 per cent to £27.2m, with premium cat and dog food accounting for more than half of total canine and feline food sales. Overall, pet food revenues rose 10 per cent to £327m, accessories sales inched up by 7.3 per cent to £288m and services sales (grooming and veterinary) soared 57 per cent to £50.3m. Even after adjusting for the contribution from the Vets4Pets acquisition in March 2013, services revenue still rose 25 per cent.

Expansion has continued and 32 new stores brought the total to 377. The number of veterinary clinics increased by 69 to 277 and there were 42 additional grooming salons. Mr Wood says there's capacity to run more than 500 stores, 700 veterinary clinics and more than 300 salons in the UK. He also confirmed plans to pay a dividend this year, with a payout ratio of 30-40 per cent anticipated. Accordingly, Bank of America Merrill Lynch expects a dividend of 4.96p in 2015 (suggesting a prospective yield of 2.3 per cent) and underlying EPS of 14.2p (7.02p in 2014).