Animed Direct drives growth at CVS

Integrated veterinary services provider CVS updated the market on its trading for the financial year ended 30 June on Thursday, reporting a 20.7% improvement in total group revenue to £327m.

The AIM-traded firm said like-for-like growth was 4.9%.

As it expected, strong growth in sales of ‘Animed Direct’ had continued, with the board saying that excluding Animed Direct, like-for-like sales for the group grew 2.9%.

The “unusually severe” snow at the end of February and the start of March was estimated to have reduced sales by around £1.0m, it also claimed.

Adjusted EBITDA for the financial year was anticipated to be “broadly in line” with analysts' consensus expectations, which the directors said reflected the impact of snow, and the lower-than-anticipated short-term performance of some acquisitions.

“Following management action, these acquisitions have shown improvement more recently and they are expected to achieve normal performance levels during the current financial year and beyond,” the CVS board said in its statement.

“The board is satisfied with ongoing like-for-like growth since the year end, being at similar levels to the past year.”

CVS said the high pace of acquisitions continued in the year to 30 June, with a total of 52 surgeries being acquired.

Approximately £50.6m, including net debt acquired, was paid for those acquisitions.

“Since the interim results issued on 16 February and up to the year-end, 22 surgeries have been acquired for total consideration of £16.9m, including net debt acquired.”

CVS Group said it expected to announce its full-year results on 27 September.