Specialist pet store Pets at Home Group PLC (LON:PETS) handed a treat to its investors with a 39% dividend hike after robust trading in its latest year.
The retailer reported a statutory profit before tax of £92.1mln (£87mln) on revenues of £793mln in the 53 weeks to end March.
Services revenue saw year-on-year growth of more than 29% as the company opened 110 new vet practices and grooming salons.
Like-for-like, merchandise revenues edged slightly higher.
“I am pleased to report another year of good progress,” said group chief executive Ian Kellett.
“We have seen excellent performance in our strategic growth drivers of Advanced Nutrition, VIP, vet and grooming services.”
Pets at Home also announced that it expects to take a hit of about £2mln in the coming year as the National Living Wage is introduced.
The group said trading to date in this year is in line with expectations.
Shares were up 7p or 2.8% to 256.3p.