The company will invest 20 million pounds (19.75 million Euro) next year alone in its vets business, which has a core profit margin of about 34 percent compared with its retail division’s 14 percent.
The company reported falling profits in late May, sinking its shares to an all-time low, but its in-store vet business was a rare bright spot, with revenues rising 16 percent.
It is now placing its bets on vets.
It told Reuters it plans to double the number of practices it operates – mainly 50-50 joint venture partnerships with vets – to 1,000 over the next decade.
Pets At Home is one of the bigger British retail players, with a market value of about 830 million pounds. Yet its toils and tactics tell a wider story about how companies across the sector are being forced to rethink business models to plot courses out of the gloom.
