Results Round-up
Pet shop chain Pets at Home reported higher first half sales and said it was on track to hit full-year targets.
Pets at Home said like-for-like sales rose 4.2% both in the second quarter and first half, driven by strength in its advanced nutrition and health & hygiene products.
It said its VIP Club loyalty scheme had good momentum and fee income from its veterinary practices and pet grooming business had continued to expand.
Total revenue rose 10.2% to £381.5m in the 28 week period from 28 March to 9 October.
Merchandise revenues rose 8.9% to £348.3m, driven by new store openings and continued strength in food and accessories;
Service revenues lifted 27% to £33.2m, reflecting new openings and rising revenue from vets and grooming.
It added eight shops to its portfolio in the first half including 10 new stores, one store closure in Knutsford, and a temporary closure of its Rugby store, which will be moved next year.
It expects to open at least 25 new stores, 60 new veterinary practices and 50 new Groom Room salons this year.
Chief executive Nick Wood said: "We are very pleased with the strong like-for-like growth of 4.2% in the first half of our financial year. This positive momentum across the business gives us further confidence in our ability to deliver on our expectations for the full financial year."
Pets At Home will release its full FY15 interim results on 4 December.
UK challenger bank TSB reported higher third quarter profits and said it was ahead of its long term target in attracting customers switching from other banks.
TSB, which demerged from Lloyds Banking Group, said pre-tax profit in the third quarter to 30 September rose 32% to about £41m.
It said its share of current account gross flow in the quarter was 9.7%, above the long term target of 6%.
It said it remained strongly capitalised with a pro forma fully loaded Common Equity Tier 1 capital ratio of 18.8%.
The group also said its development of a mortgage intermediary capability remains on track to happen in the first quarter of 2015.
Lloyds Banking group now owns half the bank and TSB has joined the FTSE 250 Index.
Chief executive Paul Pester said: "While we have always been clear that we are on a five year journey to grow TSB and its returns, it's great to see people right across Britain continuing to vote with their feet for TSB's local banking model.
"Nearly one in 10 of all customers who opened new bank accounts or switched during the last quarter chose TSB - this is well ahead of our long term target.
"The strong current account performance is one of the factors that has enabled us to grow our customer deposits by £0.5bn to £24.2bn. Meanwhile our plans to enable customers across Britain to buy a TSB mortgage from their local mortgage broker from the first quarter 2015 remain on track."