Pets at Home Store

Top story:

Pets at Home’s revenue fell slightly in its third quarter hit by weaker retail demand for pet accessories.

The FTSE-250 company said revenue dropped 0.2% to £361.6m in the 12 weeks to 2 January.

Like-for-like retail sales were down 2.8% due to “particularly weak footfall from October”, although overall revenue was propped up by its veterinary arm which boosted sales by 19.9%.

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Morning update:

Soft drinks maker AG Barr saw double digit profit growth and revenue up 5% last year as its three core brands all performed strongly.

Revenue grew to £420m for the full year ending 25 January, according to a company trading update, while operating margin recovered to 13.5% helping to drive “double digit profit growth”.

AG Barr said Rubicon was the stand-out performer with another year of double-digit revenue growth.

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SSP shares lept 5% in early trading after it posted like-for-like sales growth of 6% in the first quarter of the year. 

The Upper Crust owner said it had seen a strong sales performance in all regions, underpinned by structural growth across the travel industry around the world.

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Shop prices fell for the second consecutive month as retailers dialled up their January promotions, according to the monthly BRC-NIQ shop price index.

The rate of shop price deflation eased to 0.7% in January, fuelled by food inflation falling to 0.2%.

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