Pets at Home Celebrates Christmas in January

As the UK's leading pet supplies retailer, Pets at Home is a barometer for the health of pet owner's wallets. It seems that, in the last quarter at least, pet owners continued to spend.

Despite the recession and, as a result of pet owners continuing to support the retailer, Pets at Home reported a very good Christmas period with sales up 6.7% in the 6 weeks to January 7th 2010. This compares to 10.4% growth over the same period in 2008/9.

Chief Executive of Pets at Home, Matt Davies said: 'While the economic environment is challenging for all retailers, the continued strengthening of our offer coupled with our store opening programme and the exceptional talent and dedication of our people gives us confidence for the future.'

The more than respectable performance saw animal lovers buy over one thousand tonnes of wild bird food. This was due to the horrible conditions for the birds during the heavy snow experienced by most of the UK before Christmas and in January.

The cold snap also caused increased sales for products that keep pets warm. The most surprising of products being dog coats, which were 70% up on the previous year's sales.

Pets at Home has 227 outlets all over the UK. Here's a video showing some black and white rabbits in a Pets at Home shop:

As of yesterday we, the UK, have officially come out of recession. Albeit only with a growth rate of 0.1% in the last quarter. Could this increase have been due to a Christmas rush and knowing the VAT rate was going back up from 15% to 17.5% on 1st January? Many believe there is a good case to support this theory. There is even talk of a 'double dip', where we go back into recession again after this miniscule growth in the last quarter.

As always it is important to keep at eye on your outgoings. If you have a dog or a cat or are just about to get one it's worth doing a pet insurance comparison so that, if anything did happen to them you can ensure you're not going to worry about the cost.

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