Sustainability
Report 2023
About this report
Creating a beer world
for pets and the people
who love them
This is our fourth stand-alone
Sustainability Report and FY23 is the
second full year since we launched Our
Better World Pledge. In this summary
we report our progress during FY23.
We are proud to include some of the
many examples of how the strategy is
brought to life across the business in
our planet, pets and people sections.
This report was published in June 2023 and covers our
nancial year March 2022 to March 2023. It provides additional
information to supplement the Pets at Home Group 2023
Annual Report and Accounts. It is intended to provide a longer
read which we hope will be helpful and relevant to specialists
interested in ESG matters. In this report we reference the
United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), and
the Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB). We
have published our Task Force for Climate-related Financial
Disclosures (TCFD) Report within our Annual Report and it
isalsoavailable to download from our corporate site. More
details on our policies can be found on our corporate website.
Contents
Introduction
02 CEO introduction
03 2022/2023 Highlights
04 Strategic framework
06 Targets and SDG alignment
08 Materiality assessment
Planet
10 Overview
12 Our operational impacts
16 Value chain impacts
19 Looking ahead
Pets
20 Overview
22 Pets in our care
24 Products, services and advice
26 Pet charity
29 Looking ahead
People
30 Overview
32 Our culture, values
and behaviours
32 Listening and engagement
33 Diversity and inclusion
34 Pet Care expertise
36 Wellbeing, reward
and human rights
37 Health and Safety
37 Looking ahead
ESG Governance
38 ESG Governance
39 ESG Chair Summary Report
40 Assurance statement
42 SASB alignment and policies
Our TCFD Report can be found
on page 52 of the Annual Report.
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023 Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
01
B
Retaining CDP score
of 'B' in our second
year of completion
41%
reduction in absolute
scope 1 and 2 emissions
since 2016, while
increasing sales by 80%
2040
SBTi approved 2030
and 2040 carbon
reduction targets
vs a 2020 base
1,000
ideas generated by our
all colleague 'Big Listen'
on planet topics
£500k
raised for Woodland
Trust in the last two
years through the
Pet Memory Scheme
400+
Pet pouch customer
collection bins in 94%
of pet care centres
Over 7 million collected
since initial trial in 2021
Planet
1291
number colleagues
have reached pet
advisor level
450
pet care centres have
small animal adoption
centres rehoming over
900k pets since 2007
£5.2m
Pets at Home
Foundation has raised
£6.1m in FY23 and over
£50m since it was
established in 2006
213
Pet food bank
collection points in
our pet care centres
£3m
VIP lifelines has raised
£3m in FY23 and over
£20m since it was
established in 2012
1,827
Suitably Qualied
Persons (SQPs)
Pet
2022/2023 Highlights
68,000
Number of training
hours delivered
(pet care development/
pet care expert)
189
apprentices welcomed
5,700+
colleagues have
completed our new
nutritional training
207
Mental Health First
Aiders trained in the
Group during FY23
101
Vet Graduates
welcomed
11,000+
hours of colleague
volunteering donated
to community projects
People
CEO introduction
What is sustainability
at Pets at Home?
We do this by:
– Seeing the world from the pet's point
ofview, always putting pets rst
– Building trusted relationships with
petowners
– Creating a great place to work for our
pet expert colleagues
– Helping to build stronger pet-loving
communities
– Protecting and enhancing the
environment
– Creating sustainable investor return
– Fostering innovative partnerships with
our suppliers
– Taking a leadership role in our industry
and profession
Another year of progress
This value that we create has enabled us
to make signicant progress in the year. I
am delighted that our pet pouch collection
units are now in the majority of our stores,
enabling customers to return used pouches
for us the forward to a specialist recycling
centre. Over seven million pouches have
been recovered to date. We have continued
our commitment to 100% renewable energy
across our group contracts and our car
eet is now 75% EV or hybrid. Our long term
investment in carbon reduction initiatives
means that we reduced our absolute
carbon emissions by 4.3% vs FY22 and since
2016 we have reduced our scope 1 and 2
emissions by 41% while growing our sales
revenue by 80%. We are excited that our
new distribution centre in Stafford will be
tted with solar panels and battery storage.
We have continued to be there for pets
when they need our help. The Pets at Home
Foundation remains the largest grant giver
to pet charities in the UK. Our Christmas
Santa Paws campaigning raised over £2m
and our Summer fundraiser raised over
£600k for hearing dogs. I am really proud
that by the Summer all Pet Care Centres will
have a pet food bank in partnership withthe
Blue Cross.
It starts with our purpose
Our purpose is to create a better world
for pets and the people who love
them. It drives us to deliver pet care
in a long term socially responsible,
environmentally sustainable and
nancially successful way. It starts with
our passion for pets, that’s what unites
us with our colleagues, customers and
communities. Our purpose is why we
exist and to deliver this, challenges
us to look after the interests of all
stakeholders who we interact with and
depend on by continually improving
our performance and creating
sustainable value.
Creating value for our stakeholders relies
on us understanding what matters to
them through strong and constructive
relationships.
At the heart of our business are our people
who day in, day out bring their passion
for pets to guide and support pet owners.
We have continued to invest in training
to develop our differentiated pet care
expertise. Over 5700 colleagues completed
our new nutrition training and we have 158
vet graduates across both cohorts of our
award-winning graduate programme. We
have been focusing on diversity and over
90% of support office and retail colleagues
and 70% of our practice colleagues have
completed our diversity and inclusion
foundation training. Female representation
has something we have always been
committed to and this year we were proud
to be recognised in the FTSE Women
Leaders Review 2023 moving to seventh
place up from 22nd for representation of
women atexecutive level.
Strategy refresh
Three years after the initial development of
our Better World Pledges strategy, during
2022 we embarked on a refresh to ensure
that it remained relevant and focused.
We conducted an extensive materiality
review which identied over 80 topics that
we needed to address. With the fantastic
foundation of delivery from the last few
years the refresh was aimed at ensuring
we maximised our impact and prioritised
areas of signicant opportunity. We are
delighted to share this refreshed strategy
in this report and the focus on pet food
sustainability, delivering pet care inside and
outside our business and the development
of pet care expertise. Sustainability has been
prioritised as a strategic initiative in its own
right and is one of the key pillars of our vision
to build the worlds best pet care platform.
Looking ahead
I am energised by our new refreshed
ambition and renewed focus. It is a key
differentiator for our business and source
of sustainable growth and competitive
advantage. The global challenges that
we face are signicant but we are here to
play our part, to work in collaboration with
stakeholders, to innovate, invest and lead
the way to create a better world for pets
and the people who love them.
Lyssa McGowan
Chief Executive Officer
Awards
Retail Week 2023 Awards
Responsible Retailer of
the Year
Personnel Today
Awards 2022
HR Impact of the year award
Great British Workplace
Wellbeing Awards
Team of the Year, People
Team, Nov 2022
Pets at Home was selected
as one of the FTSE's
Women Leaders in 2022
Pets at Home internationally
and publicly recognised
by the Financial Times and
Statista as one of Europe’s
Climate Leaders 2022
02 03
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Strategic framework
What sustainability
means at Pets at Home
Sustainable Business Model
Our purpose
Creating a beer world for pets and the people who
love them
By leading in sustainable petfood:
– Environmental impacts on carbon,
land use, water and nature
– Innovative, sustainable packaging
– Nutritional needs met, affordably
By being the leading advocate
for pet welfare:
– Adopting the highest welfare and
clinicalstandards for pets in our care
– Provide pet owners with the best
products, service and advice
– Using our voice and expertise to
advocate forpets
– Being the largest grant giver to
pet charities in the UK
By creating rewarding, sustainable
careers in pet care for everyone:
– Continuous investment in pet care expertise
– Compelling clinical careers and
development opportunities
– Colleagues fully representing our
diverse communities
Planet
Pets
People
To make pet care
environmentally
sustainable
To improve the
life of every pet
in the UK
To be the best
employer and
developer of
pet care talent
Our 3 Sustainability pillars Goals Strategic priorities
areas of key strategic importance to us and
importance to our stakeholders. These fell
across each of our pillars and have become
the three strategic priorities.
Starting with planet, we have prioritised
pet food sustainability. Pet food is a non
discretionary purchase for pet owners
and has environmental impact due to the
prevalence of meat-based ingredients in
most recipes. Manufacturing processes can
also be intensive in terms of energy use. The
most signicant element of achieving our
goal of making pet ownership sustainable
isthe decarbonisation of pet food.
We believe we are best placed to lead this
transition to sustainable pet food leveraging
partnerships, innovation and our pet owner
reach. Pet food is a part of our proposition
where we have an opportunity to grow our
business, so it becomes even more important
as we grow our share of this market to
integrate sustainability into our approach.
Within our pet pillar our goal is to improve
the life of every pet in the UK with pet's
physical and emotional health being in our
top three material topics. Our opportunity
to do this is huge through the pets that
we provide direct care to through to the
products, services and advice that we
provide to pet owners and the work of
ourcharity, the Pets at Home Foundation.
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Sustainable
business
When we articulate our vision of building the world’s best pet care platform, we purposefully
acknowledge that sustainability is a key ingredient to achieve this. Sustainability means the
maintenance of nancial, environmental and social capital thereby creating value in the
short and long term and protecting the resources that we all depend on.
New to this pillar is a recognition of our
opportunity to use our credible, trusted
voice to advocate for pets in a broader
societal context. Pets and their well being
sits at the heart of our business through
ourpurpose and values.
Finally on our people pillar our goal is
to be the best employer and developer
of pet care talent. The key components
of delivering this will be around the
development of pet care expertise and in
particular clinical talent and our focus on
diversity and inclusion. This is critical to
attracting and retaining great colleagues
tobuild the world’s best pet care platform.
Embedding our strategy across our business
remains an important focus as we move into
FY24. One good example ofthis in action
is our revolving credit facility, agreed in
March 2022, which is linked to sustainability
targets. We now have nancial incentives
(or penalties) to accelerate our work on
pet, people andplanet through targets
focused oncarbon reduction, supporting
pets inneed and community action. See
ourinvestor website for more details about
our performance against these targets.
Alignment to SDGs
Alignment to SDGs
Alignment to SDGs
For more information about the Planet pillar
see page 10
For more information about the Pet pillar
see page 20
For more information about the People pillar
see page 30
Refreshed strategic framework
During our strategy refresh we had a key
objective to ensure alignment between
the sustainability strategy and the
business strategy. We started with a full
materiality assessment (see page 8 for an
overview) and reached out to all of our
colleagues across the business to get their
ideas and suggestions on how we can
become more environmentally sustainable
through 'The Big Listen' (see page 12 for
an overview). Inevitably the materiality
assessment generated a long list of topics,
the prioritisation of these identied three
04 05
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Primary
SDG Targets
Comments
By 2028 all priority own
brand food products
carbon footprinted
Primary
12.5, 12.8
Leading in
sustainable
pet ownership
By 2028 all priority suppliers
have carbon reduction
plans in place and will have
achieved leadership category
Primary
12.6, 12.8
Leading
change with
our suppliers
By 2028 all priority raw
materials to be sustainable
and packaging recyclable
Primary
12.5, 12.8
Leading in
sustainable
pet ownership
By 2028 create, protect
and restore over 16k acres
of native UK woodland
(2020 base)
Primary
15.2
Woodland
Trust
long term
partnership
By 2030 achieve a 42%
reduction across scopes
1,2 and 3 vs 2020 base
and new zero by 2040 (SBTi)
Primary
8.4, 12.6, 12.8
Decoupling
growth from
environmental
impact
By 2028 demonstrate
how we have improved
pet welfare in the UK
through advocacy
Primary
3.4
Pets promote
exercise and
wellbeing
By 2028 demonstrate how
our products, services and
advice support the health
of the nation’s pets
Primary
3.4
Pets promote
exercise and
wellbeing
By 2028 help 500k pets
through our charity work
Primary
3.4
Pets promote
exercise and
wellbeing
By 2028 educate 300k
children in responsible
pet ownership (since 2020)
Primary
3.4
Pets promote
exercise and
wellbeing
By 2028 maximise pet
care training investment
and opportunity creation
Primary
4.4, 8.5
Best employer
and developer
of pet care
talent
By 2028 colleagues to
represent the diversity
of the communities in
which we operate
Primary
4.4, 8.5
Best employer
and developer
of pet care
talent
By 2028 donate over 50,000
colleague hours to support
community organisations
Secondary
17
Partnering to
deliver social
impact
Primary linked SDG Goal and/or Target(s) Secondary link SDG Goal and/or Target(s)
PlanetPetPeople
SDGs
We recognise the opportunity that we have to contribute to the delivery of the SDGs. As part of the strategy refresh we have reviewed
where≈we will be able to make the most impact and have identied eight targets within the ve goals that we will be primarily focusing on.
This exercise demonstrated that we have a lesser but still important impact on a number of the other goal areas. We particularly recognise
the importance of partnerships in making sustainable progress.
Strategic framework continued
Targets
Our existing targets have been updated to reect the refreshed strategy.
There are twelve targets to track our progress against our strategic priorities. In the planet pillar there are two new targets that have been
been added to reect our focus on the carbon impact of pet food and our scope 3 engagement with all of oursuppliers. In our pet pillar we
have added a new target area on pet welfare which articulates our commitment to using our credible expert voice to advocate for pets. In
our people pillar our commitment to ongoing investment in our community volunteering work is a new target area. We have also developed
adiversity target which reects our overall commitment to representation along with a specic focus on ethnic minority representation.
Our longer term 2030 and 2040, SBTi approved carbon reduction targets (target 5) remainunchanged.
Pillar Topic
1
3
5
2
4
Target Our Better World Pledge targets
Planet
By 2028 all priority suppliers to have carbon reduction plans in place and 50% to have
achieved leadership category
By 2028 create, protect and restore over 15k acres of native UK woodland (2020 base)
By 2028 all priority own brand food products carbon footprinted
By 2028 all priority raw materials to be sustainableand packaging recyclable
By 2030 achieve a 42% reduction in scopes 1,2 and 3 vs a 2020 base on thejourney to
reaching net zero by 2040
Pet food
Products
Carbon
Scope 3 carbon
Biodiversity
9
By 2028 educate 300k children in responsible pet ownership (2020 base)Education
6
7
8
By 2028 demonstrate how our products, services and advice support the health
of the nation’s pets
By 2028 demonstrate how we have improved pet welfare in the UK throughadvocacy
By 2028 help 500k pets through our charity work
Pet Welfare
Charity
Pet Care
Pet
12
10
11
By 2028 we will reect the diversity of the communities we operate in, achieving
an average of 12% representation of people from ethically diverse backgrounds
By 2028 donate over 50,000 colleague hours to support communityorganisations
By 2028 maximise pet care training investment and opportunity creation
Community
Pet care expertise
Diversity
People
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Environment Social Governance
Strategic framework continued
Materiality assessment approach
A detailed materiality assessment is
conducted every three years. As part of our
strategy refresh we listened to colleagues,
customers and wider stakeholders to ensure
that our refreshed strategy is t for the
future to make the greatest impact on the
sustainability issues facing our business,
communities and planet.
Process
We began this process in the Autumn
of 2022 with the internal sustainability
team creating a long list of 85 topics
that the strategy needed to address.
This was divided into 20 environmental
topics, 48social topics that covered
pet and people-related areas and 17
governancetopics.
This list was reviewed by the relevant
internal management committees and
consolidated into 20 high level ESG topics
that were then ranked, using a ve year
timeframe, based on the importance to our
business and the importance to stakeholders.
The ranking has been validated through
external engagement including one to one
meetings with shareholders representing
20% of ourholding as of February 2023.
Result
This process resulted in ve topics leaving the list either because they were now incorporated into higher level topics or they were
now reframed as an impact of other activities:
ESG Topic Comments on changes to topics
Social mobility and inequality Removed as included within diversity and inclusion
Resources consumption & circularity Removed as included within the topic of waste
Purpose-led business & careers Removed as now viewed as an outcome of a Purpose-led integrated sustainable business strategy
Supply chain transparency Removed as it is an enabler of human rights and product sustainability progress
Environmental impacts of product production Included in the topic sustainable sourcing
Five topics entered the materiality list:
ESG Topic Comments on changes to topics
Pet food sustainability Pulled out a standalone topic due to environmental materiality and alignment to our strategy of
pet food growth
Talent and development Critical to developing differentiated proposition with clinical and pet expert talent
Customer service Reflects updated strategy of pet owner centricity
Product quality and safety Includes product differentiation on pet welfare
Accessible and affordable pet care Reflecting the cost of living crisis
15 topics remained on the materiality assessment with three of these signicantly changing their position. The remaining 12 remained
in a broadly similar position within the top 20, to the last review. The overall assessment then became a key input into the strategy refresh.
Materiality
assessment
S 1 Pet's physical and emotional health 5 5 10 No change
E 2 Pet food sustainability 5 5 10 New
S 3 Talent and development 5 5 10 New
G 4 Business ethics, governance and risk 4 5 9
G 5 Data privacy, security and ethics 5 4 9
S 6 Customer service 5 4 9 New
S 7 Product quality and safety 5 4 9 New
S 8 Accessible and affordable pet care 5 4 9 New
S 9 Pet's role in society 5 4 9 No change
E 10 Sustainability of pet ownership 4 4 8 No change
E 11 Climate action 3 5 8 No change
S 12 Diversity and inclusion 4 4 8 No change
S 13 Human health, wellbeing and safety 5 3 8
E 14 Protecting nature 3 4 7 No change
E 15 Sustainable sourcing 3 4 7 No change
S 16 Community contribution 5 2 7 No change
E 17 Waste and circularity 3 3 6 No change
E 18 Sustainability of product packaging 3 3 6 No change
S 19 Labour practices and Human Rights 2 3 5 No change
S 20 Animal welfare impacts of product production 2 2 4 No change
ESG
Importance
to stakeholders
Importance to
Pets at Home
Total
importance score
Status
Importance to stakeholders
Importance to Pets at Home
Important
Very important
Critically important
16
13
10 12
5
6
4
8
9
7
2
1
3
11
1514
18
1719
20
09
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
08
Planet
Goal: To make pet
care environmentally
sustainable
Alignment to SDGs
Our focus areas for this report:
Our operational impacts
Our value chain impacts
Please see our Annual Report page 52 for our TCFDstatement
New Strategic Priorities
Our goal of making pet care environmentally sustainable
will be achieved by leading in sustainable petfood:
– Environmental impacts on carbon, land use, water and nature
– Innovative, sustainable packaging
– Nutritional needs met, affordably
Our Refreshed Targets:
Pet food
By 2028 all priority own
brand food products
carbon footprinted
Scope 3 carbon
By 2028 all priority suppliers
to have carbon reduction
plans in place and 50% to have
achieved leadership category
Products
By 2028 all priority raw
materials to be sustainable
and packaging recyclable
Biodiversity
By 2028 create, protect and
restore over 15k acres of native
UK woodland (2020 base)
Highlights
B
Retaining CDP score of 'B' in
our second year of completion
1,000+
ideas generated by our all
colleague 'Big Listen' on
planettopics
41%
reduction in absolute scope
1 and 2 emissions since 2016,
while increasing sales by 80%
£500k
raised for the Woodland Trust
in the last two years
98.3%
of operational waste diverted
from landll
75%
of company car eet
lowcarbon
10%
improvement in CO
2
e intensity
relative to £m revenue at 17.2
(FY23) vs 19.1 ( FY22)
2040
SBTi approved 2030 and 2040
carbon reduction targets
94%
Pet pouch customer collection
bins in 94% of pet care centres.
Over 7 million collected since
initial trial in2021
100%
of main Group electricity
contract renewable since
2017 and all buildings
carbon neutral in relation
toenergyuse
Our approach
Climate change, biodiversity loss and
resource scarcity are the biggest challenges
that we face across the planet. They are
complex and inter-related problems that
affect every part of our business too. For our
business to be sustainable we need to cut
carbon emissions and environmental impacts.
Our strategy refresh has put sustainability
at the heart of our business strategy.
Within the planet area we have developed
a goal to make pet care environmentally
sustainable. The most material area for us to
address to achieve this goal is pet food. It is a
non discretionary product that all pet owners
have to buy and it has environmental impacts
because of the land-based ingredients and
animal-based proteins in the majority of
recipes. We will place strategic priority on
this area while continuing to address our
operational impacts.
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Planet continued
Our operational impacts
Listening to our colleagues
Our colleagues are incredibly passionate
about our sustainability strategy and we
knew it was essential to engage them in our
strategy refresh. To do this we launched a
company-wide listening and engagement
campaign called 'The Big Listen' where we
went out to teams and trained managers
to run sessions to capture what they were
currently doing, what they could do in the
future and what their ideas for business-
wide initiatives and opportunities from
an environmental perspective. We were
overwhelmed with the level of engagement
with over 1,000 unique ideas contributed
from more than 500 listening sessions. This
campaign also saw the launch of our rst
Better World Pledge Planet champions
network with over 175 colleagues signing
upto be champions in their areas. We are
now focused on playing back the insights
and critically the actions to the business.
Carbon
We use energy to run our pet care centres
and our distribution network. We have been
investing in energy reduction initiatives
over many years. Our commitment to
renewable energy began in 2017 and our
main energy contracts have been 100%
renewable since then. We have installed
LED lighting and buildings' energy
management systems. Because of this
investment over the long term, we have
been able to grow our business while
reducing our absolute carbon emissions
(see table 1).
Our reporting boundaries
Fugitive gas and anaesthetic gas use has
been included from FY20, we are unable to
source accurate data earlier than this point,
hence the increase in emissions between
FY19 and FY20 in table 1. Anaesthetic gas
is a signicant emission source at 27% of
scope 1 emissions. As part of our operational
carbon footprint in Table 3, we also include
emissions from our use of third party
logistics, personal travel and electricity
distribution and transmission losses. This
is a very small part of our overall scope
3 emissions which are discussed in more
detail on page 16.
FY23 performance
During the year we have continued to invest
in energy reducing initiatives. We have run
an education campaign with colleagues
to further reduce our use of energy in our
buildings. All of our fork lifts at our DCs are
now electric. We have moved our company
car eet list to a low carbon selection and
75% of our company cars are now either EV
or hybrid.
Our absolute scope 1 and 2 carbon use
hasreduced by 4.3% and our energy use
in KWh has remained broadly at. Our
intensity-based performance has continue
to improve year/year at 17.2 t CO
2
e relative
to £m revenue.
Our scope 1 emissions have reduced by
2.2% within that there has been an increase
in diesel emissions of 5.4% as our business
has grown and our network recongured as
we ramp up operations at our new national
distribution centre in Stafford and transition
from our current operation from multiple
sites. From an efficiency perspective our
km/l has remained broadly at at 2.97 (FY23)
vs 2.94 (FY22). Our anaesthetic gas carbon
emissions impact, also within scope 1, has
reduced by 4.8%.
Our scope 2 emissions have shown an
improvement of 6.2%, benetting from the
decarbonisation of the national grid and
natural gas removal programme.
Our scope 3 emissions, reported within
our operational footprint, included in table
3, have shown an increase of 7.4% which
has been driven by third party logistics
increases due to the increased sales
volumeand network reconguration.
Our performance over the longer term
continues to demonstrate the importance
of carbon reduction to our business. Since
2016 our revenue has grown by 80% and our
absolute emissions have reduced by 41% as
shown in table 1.
Delivering our long term carbon
reduction goals
We have set ourselves a very challenging
target of 42% absolute carbon reduction
(scope 1 &2) by 2030 vs a 2020 base,
which is approved by the Science Based
Target initiative. To achieve these further
reductions will require us to make further
investments which we have included in
our ve year investment plan. We are
also reliant on the UK grid continuing
todecarbonise.
We have allocated capital to install solar
panels and battery storage facilities at our
new National Distribution Centre in Stafford.
The transition from our current network
of two national and additional regional
distribution facilities will lead to an increase
in buildings' energy use as we will be having
all facilities operating simultaneously during
this transition. The movement of stock
between locations will also be sub optimal
in terms of logistics efficiencies. Once the
transition is complete and with the addition
of solar there will be distribution buildings,
energy savings.
Regarding our diesel usage within scope
1, we do not anticipate that battery
technologies will be advanced enough
to produce any carbon savings before
2030. We are currently trialling HVO as
an alternative fuel to reduce our logistics
carbon as a transitionary measure until
other technologies become viable.
We are launching an anaesthetic gas
stewardship programme within the Vet
Group during FY24 to optimise the use of
gas in line with clinical best practice. We are
also testing voltage optimisation technology
in a number of stores and other locations to
further reduce buildings' energy.
Table 1: Scope 1 & 2 carbon emissions eight year performance tCO
2
e emissions
Tonnes CO
2
e emissions
FY16 FY17 FY18 FY19 FY20 FY21 FY22 FY23 FY23 vs FY16
Emissions
Scope 1 9,498 9,619 9,649 8,431 12,085 11,337 11,968 11,709 23.3%
Scope 2 (location based) 31,680 28,840 21,584 17,066 15,133 13,616 13,200 12,386 -62.1%
Total 41,178 38,459 31,233 25,497 27,218 24,953 25,168 24,095 -41.5%
% change -7% -19% -18% 7% -8% 1% -4%
Group
Revenue
£m 779 834 899 961 1,059 1,143 1,318 1,404 80.2%
% change 7.1% 7.8% 6.9% 10.2% 7.9% 15.3% 6.6%
Normalisation/Intensity 52.9 46.1 35.1 26.5 25.7 21.8 19.1 17.2 -67. 5%
% change -13.0% -25.0% -24.0% -3.0% -15.0% -12.5% -10.0%
Normalisation: Intensity calculated using Group revenue and location-based scope 1 & 2 emissions. Exclusions: Anaesthetics & Fugitive emissions are included from year FY20 onwards.
Intensity has been calculated using Group revenue and location-based scope 1 and 2 emissions.
12 13
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023 Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
Scope Fuel 2021/22 2022/23 FY23 vs FY22 FY23 % of total
2 Electricity 12610 11980 -5.0% 40.7%
1 Diesel core eet 7149 7535 5.4% 25.6%
3 Diesel (3rd party) 3188 3603 13.0% 12.2%
1 Anaesthetic gas 3379 3218 -4.8% 11.0%
3 Electricity T&D losses 1114 1096 -1.6% 3.7%
3 Business travel (3rd party) 652 620 -4.9% 2.1%
1 F-GAS 536 540 0.7% 1.9%
2 Natural gas 590 406 -31.2% 1.4%
1 Company eet 558 416 -25.5% 1.4%
1 Red diesel 345 0 -100.0% 0%
Planet continued
Our operational impacts continued
Grooming salons
To make our grooming business as
sustainable as possible, we manage the
sharpening of our blades and maintenance
of our electrical equipment through an
expert in-house team located in our
distribution centre. The shampoo bottles
are now made of 100% recycled content and
are recyclable as we moved to PCR bottles
from January 2022. We have recently
started a trial in four salons to return pet
hair from our grooming for onward recycling
where they will be made into mats to help
with river bank erosion among other uses!
Pet Memory scheme
The Woodland Trust is the UK’s largest
woodland conservation charity. We began
working with the Woodland Trust in FY20
when we joined the Forest Carbon scheme
to mitigate our residual buildings energy
carbon. In FY21 we developed and launched
our Pet Memory Scheme and March 2023
marked the second anniversary. The
scheme enables our vet practices to make
a donation to celebrate the life of the loved
pets that they have the pleasure to look
after. The vets are able to extend their
sympathy at the time of bereavement with
a beautiful in sympathy card in partnership
with the Woodland Trust. Over 90% of vet
practices participate in the scheme with
over £500k of donations made since FY22
and over 4000 acres of woodland and an
area with over one million trees has been
created, restored and protected.
Table 2: Carbon emissions (tCO
2
e) breakdown by source 2022/23
Waste and recycling
This year we have increased the amount of waste we have generated by 9% and maintained
our diversion from landll broadly at at 98.3%. We have increased the proportion of waste
that is recycled and recovered from 77% (FY22) to 78% (FY23). We have generated more
waste as our business grows and activities such as our network reconguration has led to
more packing materials driving an increase in cardboard use. While some waste from stores
is recycled through local waste management contractors, there are three key waste streams
that we consider either to be signicant in terms of volumes generated or particularly
unique for the business. These are animal bedding, plastic shrink wraps and cardboard
packaging used to protect and transport our products. For plastic and cardboard, we have
implemented processes that collect this waste from our stores and then backhaul it to our
distribution centres for central processing. This enables us to have a more controlled and
coordinated approach. This centralisation also means that we can focus our investment on
equipment to sort and bulk together waste sent for recycling, giving it the best chance to
come back as something new.
Table 3: Carbon emissions summary by scope 2021/22/23
Tonnes CO
2
e emissions
2020/21
(scope 2 location-based)
2021/22
(scope 2 location-based)
2022/23
(scope 2 location-based)
2022/23
(scope 2 market-based)
Scope 1 11,337 11,968 11,709 11,709
Scope 2 13,616 13,200 12,386 0
Scope 3 (see additional inclusions) 4,697 4,954* 5,319 5,319
Total 29,650 30,122 29,414 17,028
Inclusion of 1,500 tonnes of carbon mitigation 27,914 15,528
Scope 1 and Scope 2 kWh 90,400,963 96,425,923 96,138,431
Normalisation of CO
2
e scope 1 & 2 to £m revenue 21.8 19.1 17.2
Methodology: We have applied UK SECR and WBCSD/WRI Greenhouse Gas Protocol Corporate Standard as our methodology. We have used emissions factors from UK Government
2022 conversion factors, IEA 2019 for international sites and AIB residual mix from 2020.
Methodology: An operational control approach has been used for the organisational boundary. This is the same as last year 2021/22.
Additional inclusions: We have included the emissions from our stand-alone vet practices and some elements of our scope 3 emissions where we have greater operational oversight
(thirdparty business travel, third party logistics and distribution and electricity transmission and distribution losses).
Exclusions: Only anaesthetics sourced from preferred Pets at Home suppliers has been included in the calculation.
Exclusions: Train and air journeys are not reported, as no accurate carbon intensity data was available. This will be worked on in FY24 to ensure inclusion going forward.
Independent verication: Our 2022/23 scope1,2 and some scope 3 emissions (3rd party business travel and 3rd party logistics and distribution) have been veried.
Please refer to page 42 of the sustainability report for the assurance statement.
Market-based criteria: Since October 2017 we have procured 100% renewable electricity backed by REGOs and assessed for conformance with GHG Protocol scope 2 Quality
Criteria. An emission factor of zero has therefore been applied since that date to calculate our scope 2 market-based gure, whilst a location-based factor was used to calculate
scope 3 emissions from transmission and distribution losses.
Carbon mitigation: Pets at Home Ltd is donating £45,000 to the Woodland Trust, a company limited by guarantee (Company Number: 1982873) and a registered charity, Charity
Number England and Wales: No. 294344, Scotland No. SC038885 whose registered office is at Kempton Way, Grantham, Lincolnshire NG31 6LL) to absorb 1,500 tonnes of carbon
dioxide (equivalent to our use of fugitive gas, natural gas in our buildings and electricity procured outside of the Group renewable contract), through the planting of 6,400 trees,
helping with our strategy to reduce our business carbon footprint.
UK proportions: Pets at Home operations are UK based except for a small office in Hong Kong. Therefore less than 0.1% of total scope 1 and 2 emissions and kWh usage was from
outside ofthe UK.
Restatements: Absolute scope 3 greenhouse gas emissions (tCO
2
e) have been restated for FY22 from 5453 to 4954 due to an incorrect emissions factor being used in FY22 for third
party diesel fuel. Greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas were incorrectly allocated to scope 1 emissions in FY22 therefore 590 tC02e has been moved from scope 1 to scope 2.
This does not affect the total absolute greenhouse gas emissions and has not been restated for years before FY22.
Waste tonnage reporting FY23
Waste Type
FY22
Tonnage FY23
FY23
vs FY22
% of
total FY23
Cardboards and paper 4,860 6,111 35% 41%
General waste 3,921 3,606 -8% 24%
Animal bedding & wood 1,506 1,790 19% 12%
Clinical & related wastes 1,242 1,236 0% 8%
Plastics 779 757 -3% 5%
Construction & projects 748 707 -5% 5%
Mixed recycling 524 480 -8% 3%
Other 141 308 119% 2%
Total 13,721 14,996 9%
Exclusions: Some small waste areas have been excluded due to data availability. These include the small number of
practices utilising waste providers outside of Group waste contracts and two landlord-managed sites.
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
15
14
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
Value chain impacts
Planet continued
Supplier scope 1 and 2 emissions
At our supplier conference in September 2022 we launched our
supplier carbon initiative. This outlines our expectation that all of
our suppliers actively manage their operational carbon impact.
We recognise that we have suppliers at a different stages of their
journey so we have developed a carbon maturity framework that
guides suppliers on how to measure, manage and share their carbon
performance. Suppliers have been directed to our 'Knowledge Hub'
that lays out our expectations and shares information about carbon
management. As part of our refreshed strategy we have set a target
to ensure all of our suppliers have carbon reduction plans in place
and half reach leadership status, meaning that they have a science-
based or net zero strategy in place.
Pet food sustainability framework
Case study
Long term supplier partnerships
& investing in innovation
We recognise that to make the urgent
progress required to hit our carbon
reduction goals we need to work with
like minded partners. We are delighted to
have embarked on a long term strategic
partnership with Cranswick. We share
science-based carbon reduction goals
and we are excited by the opportunity
to be able to work together to develop
more sustainable pet food benetting
from their vertical integration approach
and 'second nature' climate ready
blueprint for action.
In May 2023 we announced an
investment in the Good Dog Food
Company a cultivated meat company
focusing on the pet food market. We are
on a long term journey but investing now
in areas that we believe have potential
to be signicant decarbonisation
pathways in the future.
Carbon emissions reduction pathways to 2040
FY20 scope 3 baseline has been adjusted following a methodology review with the SBTi.
l Scope 1 11.7k tCO
2
e
l Scope 2 12.4k tCO
2
e
l Scope 3 885k tCO
2
e
Tonnes CO
2
e location-based FY23 scope
1 and 2 data, scope 3 assessment FY21
Our scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions
Focusing on pet food
Decarbonising pet food is complex and will
involve progressing a number of pathways
to achieve our net zero goal. Wehave
established a pet food sustainability
framework to help to navigate this with
oursuppliers. It lays out the actions we
can take to reduce carbon in the pet
foodecosystem that we operate in.
It demonstrates that we need to maintain
the highest pet welfare standards, ensure
that our suppliers have the capability to
deliver and that our consumers are engaged
in following a more sustainable approach.
We are completing a detailed lifecycle
analysis with expert consultancy 3 Keel
on a basket of pet food products covering
different formats and ingredient types.
Thiswill enable us to better understand
thecarbon hotspots that we can address.
As we progress this work we will be focusing
on a data led approach which is why we
have set a target to carbon footprint all
of our own brand products. Partnerships
remain key and we continue to engage
with our suppliers and with industry
organisations like the BRC and UK Petfood.
We recognise our opportunity to lead
in this product category, particularly by
supporting and educating pet owners to
make sustainable choices.
Pets at Home SBTi-approved carbon reduction targets
Near-term: Pets at Home commits to reduce absolute scope 1,
2 and 3 GHG emissions 42% by FY2030 from a 2020 base year.
Long-term: Pets at Home commits to reduce absolute scope
1, 2 and 3 GHG emissions 90% from a 2020 base year.
Prioritising emissions reduction in our supply chain
This year we have further developed the priority carbon reduction pathways that we
established last year. Our priority pathways to net zero are focused on raw material switches
to lower carbon options, switches to renewable electricity, working with our suppliers on their
scope 1 and 2 reductions and a particular focus on pet food both from an ingredients and
manufacturing perspective as demonstrated in our carbon reductions pathways chart.
Our scope 3 assessment and SBTi target setting approach demonstrated that like most
retail-based businesses the largest part of our impact comes through our products being
made, used and disposed of. We have not reassessed our scope 3 base, instead prioritising
our resources to our carbon reduction activities.
GHG Emissions (Ktonnes CO
2
e)
1,400
1,200
1,000
800
600
400
200
0
FY20 baseline emissions
Business growth
Engaging
suppliers to take
action on scope 1
Transforming to
more sustainable
pet food
Leveraging
supplier
commitments
Driving renewables
uptake in the
supply chain
Shifting to low
carbon transport
100% renewables
for our own
operations
Transition to EV
New refrigerants
and anaesthetic
gases
No gas heating
NOTE: In the event that any residual remains, we will use good
quality offsets to achieve our Net Zero ambition by 2040.
Residual
90%
P
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e
Meat-based proteins
Actions: Reduce meat protein
proportions, move from high to
lower impact meats and to other
protein sources
Plant-based proteins
Actions: Veggie dog foods
launched, opportunity
to grow proportion of
plant-based proteins
By-products & human grade
Actions: Increasing use of
by-products, consumer reframing
Alternative proteins
Actions: Launched insect food,
investment into opportunities
and technology to replace
meat-based proteins
Enablers: Partnerships and Innovations; Data capture and governance; Internal embedding
Nature based impacts
We welcome the increased focus on biodiversity, land use and
water impacts. The reporting frameworks for TNFD and the SBTi ag
(forestry, land and agriculture) guidance are not fully nalised yet,
we expect to be able to plan how we can work on these important
topics during FY24.
16 17
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023 Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
Planet continued
Looking ahead
Pet food carbon footprinting
Complete the lifecycle analysis of a
basket of pet food products with 3 Keel.
Use learnings to establish guard rails for
products going forward. Begin to carbon
footprint our own brand pet food ranges.
Supplier scope 1 and 2
Extend our supplier carbon programmes
and begin to capture scope 1 and 2
data in addition to activities. Embed the
sustainability performance of suppliers
into overall supplier assessments.
Anaesthetics gas stewardship
We will be launching an anaesthetics
gas stewardship programme to support
practices to optimise gas use. This will
include CPD which will be modular and
have clinical and commercial focuses so
there is content relevant to vets, RVNs,
practice managers and JVPs. A data
dashboard will be developed to support
practices in monitoring their anaesthetic
gas use and carbon impact.
Nature-based impacts
We welcome the increased focus
on biodiversity, land use and water
impacts. The reporting frameworks for
TNFD and the SBTi ag (forestry, land
and agriculture) guidance are not fully
nalised yet, we expect to be able to plan
how we can work on these important
topics during FY24.
Packaging data
We are currently undergoing a review
of our packaging data to ensure its
accuracy meets our high standards.
Updated packaging performance data
will be published in our FY24 reporting.
Pet pouch recycling scheme
Pet pouches are the most signicant packaging
format that is not widely kerbside collected, this
is why we introduced our in-store pet pouch
customer collection scheme. We are delighted
thatthese units are now in over 94% of our pet
carecentres. This scheme accepts pet pouches and
other exible plastics for onward recycling by our
recycling partner Enval. We have partnered with our
suppliersNestlé Purina and Mars on this initiative.
This scheme has collected over seven million
pouches to date and our customers have given
really good feedback at being able to recycle this
popular packaging format when they shop with us.
Value chain impacts continued
Raw materials
As part of Our Better World Pledge strategy we set a target in FY21 to ensure that priority raw
materials, specically: soya, palm oil and timber will be sustainably sourced by 2025. As part of our
strategy refresh, the scope of this target has been updated to cover all supplier branded products in
addition to our own brand products and due to this update we have extended the target date to 2028.
We are committed to transparent reporting of our performance. Starting with Palm oil, 96% of SKUs using palm oil
have a RSPO certied source. However, we have updated our reporting criteria to ensure there is a complete RSPO
chain of custody up to and including the ingredient supplier. We are working with our suppliers to move to a complete
RSPO certied chain of custody or where this is not possible, reformulate products to remove palm oil. Regarding soya, in
nancial year 2023 we have more than halved the number of products containing soya. For remaining products, we are working
to either reformulate recipes to remove soya completely or support our suppliers to switch to credibly certied deforestation and
conversion-free soya. We have been working to improve our data accuracy and identied errors affecting last year’s reporting of timber
data. We are in the process of rolling out a new data platform to ensure the accuracy of our product data. We have restated our FY22
timber volumes and the weight of certied or recycled. The error in the FY22 numbers was due to two cat litter products which were over
weighed and incorrectly declared as certied last year, there were also two puppy pad lines incorrectly declared as certied last year.
Own brand raw materials sustainability FY23
FY23 FY22
Raw material type
Total SKUs
containing raw
material
Weight
raw material –
tonnes
Weight certified
or recycled –
tonnes
% Certified
or recycled
Total SKUs
containing raw
material
Weight
raw material –
tonnes
Weight certified
or recycled –
tonnes
% Certified
or recycled
Palm Oil 181 68 30 44% 155 90 37 41%
Soya 47 780 17 2% 104 1016 0 0%
Timber, Wood,
Paper and Card 196 25502 5331 21% 147 33,441 3010 9%
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
19
18
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
Pets
Goal: To improve the
life of every pet
in the UK
Our approach
We put pets rst is our number one value at
Pets at Home. Every colleague has a part to
play to ensure that we deliver on this value
every day. Our love and understanding of
pets led us to develop our long term goal
toimprove the life of every pet in the UK.
This covers not only the pets in our care, the pets
of owners that use our products and services but
also the pets that we can help through our charity
work and through educating and advocating for
change in society and the wider pet care and
veterinary industry.
Our Refreshed Targets
Pet Welfare
By 2028 demonstrate how we
have improved pet welfare in
the UK through advocacy
Pet Care
By 2028 demonstrate how our
products, services and advice
support the health of the
nation's pets
Charity
By 2028 help 500k pets
through our charity work
Education
By 2028 educate 300k children
in responsible pet ownership
(2020 base)
New Strategic Priorities
Alignment to SDGs
Our goal of improving the life of every pet in the UK will be achieved
by becoming the leading advocate for pet welfare:
– Adopting the highest welfare and clinical standards for pets in our care
– Provide pet owners with the best products, service and advice
– Using our voice and expertise to advocate forpets
– Being the largest grant giver to pet charities in the UK
Our focus areas for this report:
Pets in Our Care
Products services and advice
Pet Charity
Highlights
261
pet care centres have
a veterinary practice
and a grooming salon
1,827
Suitably Qualied Persons
(SQPs)
158
vet graduates across
twocohorts
1291
colleagues trained
topet advisor level
>900k
grooms given across
the year
1000
number of grooming
training hours delivered to
new grooming colleagues
£9m+
raised in FY23 by the Pets
at Home Foundation and
Lifelines and over £70m
raised since 2006
213
Pet food bank collection
points across our pet
carecentres
453
pet care centres have small
animal adoption centres
rehoming over 900k pets
since 2007
£100k
donated to support the
humanitarian emergency
relief following the Syrian
and Turkish earthquake
20 21
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023 Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
Pets continued
Pets in our care
Our recently appointed Group Veterinary Officer leads
our clinical team and is a highly regarded experienced
veterinary surgeon. She leads a team of colleagues with
advanced knowledge of the care and welfare of a wide
range of pet species.
All pets are domestically bred, and, via quarterly audits,
our Pet Team ensure the standards of care at our
breeders and in store full not only our Pets at Home
Codes of Practice, but the ‘ve welfare needs’ described
in the Animal Welfare Act, 2006. An enhanced audit
process was introduced in April 2021 to ensure stores
maintain the highest level of pet care and welfare. This
audit system provides opportunities for colleagues to
develop their pet care skills via webinars, and formal
and informal training sessions provided by the Pet Team.
All breeders receive annual audits by independent
veterinary surgeons and quarterly internal audits.
Additionally, the Pet Team advise on, and continually
update, pet care training modules for colleagues.
Quiet rooms
Each store has a secluded quiet room purpose-designed
to allow pets to rest and settle into their new surroundings.
All pets are provided with fresh water and appropriate food
and enrichment whilst in the quiet room, and the environmental
temperature is monitored and controlled by our Building
EnergyManagement System.
Breeders
All our pets are domestically bred by carefully selected
breeders, with all of our small animal and reptile breeders
located in the UK to minimise the journey time to our stores.
All pet breeding facilities and procedures are audited quarterly
by the Pet Team to ensure adherence to the ‘ve welfare needs’
described in theAnimal Welfare Act, 2006, and to our codes of
practice. Breeders are also audited at least annually by three
independent veterinary surgeons, and receive quarterly audits
from our Pet Team.
Health check
Before the journey from the breeder to store every single pet is
health checked and conrmed t to travel byour team of highly
trained Pet Health Checkers.
Health check
At least twice per day all our reptiles and small animals
receive welfare checks. Fish are checked at least every
twohours during trading hours.
Transport
Pets are transported to store in our own eet of specically
equipped and climate controlled vehicles. Our pet delivery
drivers receive specialised training in the transport of pets.
Health check
Every pet is health checked upon arrival in our stores, then at
least twice daily for small animals and reptiles, and every two
hours for sh. These welfare checks continue throughout their
stay with us. Veterinary advice is always sought should there
beany concerns about the health or welfare of a pet.
Sales oor
During their stay with us all pets receive the fresh water, food and
environmental enrichment necessary to keep them t and healthy,
and are accommodated in housing compliant with Government
guidelines. Every day, including Christmas and Boxing day, our
highly trained colleagues complete carefully designed care and
cleaning protocols to ensure the highest standards of pet welfare
are maintained.
In England and Wales we provide customers with free RSPCA
approved Pet Care Leaets for all the pets we have in store.
Similar leaets are available inScotland.
All our stores are licensed by the relevant authority to sell pets
and are audited quarterly by the Pet Team subject matter experts
to ensure we maintain the highest standards of pet welfare.
Pet Sale
Our aim is to nd the right pet for every owner, and the
right owner for every pet. Our hand-held technology guides
colleague and customer through a series of welfare questions,
and records the details of each sale. Colleagues are empowered
to refuse the sale of any pet if they are not certain the welfare
needs of the pet can be met. Free Pet Care Leaets, developed
in conjunction with the RSPCA, are available for all customers
and new owners of the pets we have in store.
Stores are regularly ‘mystery shopped’ by an ex-RSPCA
officerto ensure they adhere to the high standards of our pet
sales protocols.
Aftercare
Every customer who purchases a rabbit receives a telephone
call after and all customers buying any other pet are offered
a call. This is to ensure the pet has settled into its forever
home and to answer any questions the new owner may have.
Materials are available to support the new owner.
Here to help
Pets at Home are available at every step of the pet owner
journey. We can provide the advice, products and services
required for a happy and healthy life together.
Rabbits
In recognition of the complexities
of rabbit ownership, we now only
sell these pets in stores with an
on-site veterinary practice, and
we do not have them available
for purchase or adoption over the
Easter period. We support the code
of practice for rabbit keeping and
are committed to continuing to implement
this. We continue to recommend rabbits be housed as
compatible pairs or groups, and actively discourage the
purchase of single animals. This year we introduced a newly
formulated rabbit nugget which is a cold-pressed, low sugar
product based on natural ingredients. This range supports
digestive health and weightmanagement.
Grooming
Every consultation, in our state-of-the-art
salons starts with a seven-point health
check, whereby the coat, skin, eyes,
ears, nose, teeth, feet and hygiene
areas are all inspected. This allows
our colleagues to recommend a
grooming treatment that’s right
for the dog as well as sensitively
bringing any concerns to the
owner’s attention. All colleagues
complete rst aid training within their
rst six weeks enabling them to provide care if needed in
emergency situations. All colleagues are equipped with high
end scissors, clippers, combs and a range of shampoos to
cater for all coat types. Over 75% of our salons have a vet
practice onsite and all salons are fully air conditioned for
the comfort of our dogs.
Fish
We choose to transport fewer sh per
volume of water than the maximum
permitted in industry guidelines
despite the extra cost involved. In
store, the wellbeing of our sh is
paramount, and they are health
checked at least every two hours
during trading hours. In the
interests of pet welfare, we now
recommend a 22 litre tank for Betta
sh, and colleagues ensure customers
have at least a 60 litre tank prior to the purchase of cold-
water species. We are gradually phasing cold water sh
species out (e.g. gold sh) by actively reducing the number
of stores that stock them. Customers must have their tank
set up for all sh for at least 24 hours prior to introducing
sh and we provide free, unlimited water testing which does
not need to be associated with a sale. We have also revised
our ‘sh points’ stocking advice for customers and removed
cold-water sh entirely from thescheme.
22 23
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023Pets at Home Group Plc Social Value Report 2023
Pets continued
Providing pet owners with
the best products, services
and advice
Aiming to make a lifetime of
careaffordable and convenient
By providing a variety of pet care
propositions across our pet care ecosystem
we are best placed to guide pet owners
through their pet care journey. In addition
to our veterinary practices our various
subscription services represent another
key element of our offering which now
reaches over one million customers through
plans like our ‘subscribe and save’ cat and
dog monthly ea and worm platform, our
‘Easy Repeat’ food subscription service
and various health plans offered by our
veterinary practices including our agship
‘Complete Care’.
We are uniquely placed to guide pet owners
through the pet care journey with our
network of pet care centres with veterinary
teams, highly trained groomers, nutritional
consultants and pet care experts.
Vet practices
We are incredibly proud of our Joint
Venture vet businesses, and the talented
vets and veterinary nurses who own, run
and work these practices. Our nationwide
network of 444 small animal veterinary
practices mostly operates under the Vets
For Pets and Vets4Pets brand and in
conjunction with our Joint Venture Partners.
Our unique model provides the opportunity
for entrepreneurial vets to own their own
business. The joint venture arrangement
offers clinical and operational freedom
to veterinary surgeons supported by our
business expertise. We also operate 58
company-managed veterinary practices.
Our vet practices are supported by our
virtual veterinary care offering which runs
through the Vet Connection. In the last year
it delivered 117,000+ remote consultations
through its network of ten vets and 74 RVNs.
Clinical Excellence
Our clinical services team has recently
undergone a restructure and is now led
by a Group Veterinary Officer who has
anexpanded team of clinical experts.
New roles include a Head of Clinical
Education and Quality Improvement who
has started and a RVN Nursing Lead to be
appointed in FY24. Together they will lead
our strategy to provide the best clinical care
to pets by providing exceptional clinical
support to our Joint Venture Partners
enabling them to continually push clinical
standards forward. They will also lead the
development of our broader advocacy
strategy as part of our mission to be the
leading voice for pet health and welfare.
As part of our revised clinical strategy,
we have created a £500,000 pet health,
welfare and sustainability research fund.
This money will be used to fund vital
research into priority pet health and welfare
areas where we are well placed to make a
difference. The funds will support a broad
range of areas from external academic
research right through to practice-based
research projects.
We remain committed to supporting our
clinical colleague’s wellbeing and that
of the wider profession. Only by being at
their very best can our vets and veterinary
nurses deliver the best clinical care and it
is vitally important as we strive to be the
clinical employer of choice. We are actively
undertaking work addressed at identifying
root causes of vet specic stressors right
through to proactive and reactive practical
support at the point of need. Examples
include our primary funding to a vital
research project being undertaken by the
University of Edinburgh into suicide in
the veterinary profession through to our
innovative webinar and a training series on
civility training for vet practice colleagues
run by industry experts Vet Led which
over300 colleagues engaged with.
We remain committed to supporting all
our practices achieving the Royal College
of Veterinary Surgeon’s Practice Standard
Scheme (PSS) accreditation and have
dedicated internal clinical resource to
helping them achieve this.
We remain committed to Quality Improvement
in our veterinary care and work with our
veterinary teams to produce clinical
guidelines and best practice evidence
which supports the Joint Venture Partners
whilemaintaining clinical freedom.
Our participation in a nationwide veterinary
and human healthcare ‘Antibiotic Amnesty’
is one example. We continually update
our prescribing guidelines for antibiotics,
monitoring of usage on a four-month
cycle and with our new membership of the
companion animal group for the Responsible
Use of Antimicrobials in Animals (RUMA)
advisory board our focus on reducing
antibiotic use remains steadfast.
Petcare centre colleagues
Our leading Pet Care development and follow
on Pet Care Expert programmes continue
to ensure we lead the way with our pet care
expertise training for all store colleagues
and that there is a programme for everyone.
To nd out more read it on page 30 of our
peoplesection.
We now have over 1800 SQP (suitably
qualied person) colleagues and continue
to invest and have trained over 350 new
colleagues this year. This ensures customers
receive the very best advice when looking to
buy this type of product. All SQP colleagues
have access to CPD to maintain their
qualication and continually expand their
knowledge so they are providing the best
advice to pet owners at the point of need.
Nutritional expertise
Being a pet specialist, consumers turn to
us for advice on what to feed their pet so
it’s important we can provide them with
advice tailored to their pet and individual
circumstances and preferences. In FY23 we
launched our new nutrition matrix which
helps our colleagues give customers the best
possible advice on how to navigate our wide
selection of pet food based on affordability
and the needs of their pet.
Over 5500 colleagues have completed our
core modules and 838 have completed
the intermediate training meeting our
aim of having at least one advanced
nutrition colleague in every store. Nutrition
consultations are now happening across our
pet care centres.
See page 34 for more information about
colleague clinical and pet care training
anddevelopment.
Pet care education for children
At Pets at Home, we bring pet care to life
by using our network of pet care centres,
at the heart of their communities, to
engage with children (and their parents
and carers) about how to look after pets
through knowledge, empathy and kindness.
We restarted our face-to-face Pet Pal
sessions after the pandemic this year and
they now run alongside our digital offering.
We continue to support the Beavers and
Cubs and sponsor their Animal Friends
andAnimal Carer badges respectively.
Products that put pets rst
We benet from a high level of private
labels across our food and accessory
ranges, this means we can develop unique
and exclusive products for our customers
and their pets with pet welfare at the heart
of our developments.
With pet welfare in mind, during FY23 we
continued to reduce sugar within our treats
range, especially within our seasonal ranges,
at Easter, Halloween and Christmas. Our
small animal accessories range benetted
from having stimulating toys added to the
range, which enable natural behaviours.
Our dog bedding
range continues
to see further
developments aligned
to pet welfare, in both our
cosy comfort beds and also
our specially designed mattresses
giving additional support and tailoring to
dogs' needs during their senior years. Our
Wainwrights self-heating bed has been a
big success and ensures that the dog is
kept warm during colder temperatures.
We further enhanced our hydration range
for the Summer, and the addition of treats
that can be frozen gives both nutrition
and pet welfare benets during the hot
Summerweather.
Our range of highly durable toys, under
the Ruff and Tuff brand, have been further
enhanced through more rigorous strength
and durability testing achieved through
strengthened materials and additional
processing steps such as additional seam
strength. This new range of toys has been
developed with an expert pet behaviourist
to ensure it supports the natural behaviours
of dogs. The technical team have also
developed a bespoke testing method to
replicate a pet 'bite test' and as such can
ensure testing to rough play behaviour.
Technical and quality standards
All our own brand pet food has been tested
to required industry standards set by the
European Pet Food Industry Federation
(FEDIAF). We also conduct additional tests
on a risk basis that include extra testing
on areas including DNA, species detection
and detection of specic mycotoxins.
Our verication
processes mean that our
suppliers are routinely checked
for quality and safety. Through the
regular visits to our supplier base by our
industry experts we are driving continuous
improvement and best practice across the
industry both from a quality management
but also social and ethical compliance
perspective.
We have raw materials sustainability
standards in place that all suppliers will
berequired to be compliant with by
2028. We have a cat litter which we have
developed with a supplier who sources only
via managed UK forests which will launch
in FY24.
The teams are constantly reviewing our
testing protocols to ensure industry leading
standards for pet welfare; for example within
our hutch cover category, where thermal
insulation during the cold winter months
is critical, we have worked to develop rigid
thermal testing methods to give customers
the reassurance of safety when housing
their pets outside during the colder
weather. Having colleagues on the ground
conducting regular audits of our suppliers
has helped to ensure that product quality
and safety standards remain of paramount
importance, and we pride ourselves on
having exceptionally low complaints within
all our product categories.
Case study
Edinburgh Vet School Residency
and Clinical Support Forum
To continue to support our vets, increase
exotics specialist expertise and further
improve rabbit knowledge we are proud
to be funding a four-year residency in
rabbit medicine and surgery at Edinburgh
Vet School, the only one of its kind in
the UK. Our clinical colleagues are now
benetting from a range of services as
part of our investment including specialist
consultancy, access to a bespoke
advice forum, clinical webinars, newly
created training guides and case studies.
This residency will also critically help
advance clinical practice in this eld by
disseminating information to the wider
veterinary profession and pet owners.
See page 36 for details of
our Human Rights approach
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
25
24
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
Pets continued
Pet charity
Our work is focused
on four pillars:
Fundraising
We’re committed to
making adifference:
Funds raisedgo towards
providing muchneeded
support for pets and the
peoplewholove them.
Adoption centres
With over 450 small
pet adoption centres
nationwide, we do
everything we can to
ndsmall pets a forever
loving home.
Communities
By working alongside
you and our partners
wemake an impact in
local communities across
thecountry.
Grants
Through our grant
funding, we’reproud to
workwith rescue centres
and charities that support
pets and people across
the country.
£5.2m
Over £5m raised in FY23
£2m
Over £2m raised during
our Santa Paws Appeal
£565k
Over £565k donated to
Hearing Dogs following
our new Summer Appeal
£346k
awarded to Pets as Therapy
£300k
over £300k awarded to
Blue Cross to fund the
foodbankproject
Grants
The grant programme supports
charitable organisations who
rescue and rehome pets, or
work to improve the lives of
people through pets.
Since 2016 the Foundation
has supported rescues and
organisations with £30
million through community
partnerships and grant funding.
In FY23 over £2.7m has
been awarded to support
pets and people within
localcommunities.
Over 33k pets were supported
this year through grant funding
and 4242 people benetted
emotionally and, or physically
through time with an animal
thanks to our grant programmes.
Case studies
We are proud to operate at the heart of
communities across the UK, supporting
pets and the people who love them.
Our support for our pet communities is
organised around two main programmes:
our charitable foundation, the Pets at
Home Foundation and our customer loyalty
community programme, VIP Lifelines. These
two programmes have enabled us to award
grants, facilitate fundraising in-store by
local charitable partners, manage a national
network of adoption centres, provide a
national pet food bank network and make
donations to support emergency relief work
in Ukraine and Syria/Turkey.
The Pets at Home
Foundation
The Pets at Home Foundation is the largest
grant giver to pet rescues in the UK. This
year was also our second year supporting
charities that help improve the lives of
people through pets, expanding our impact
to benet the lives of more people and pets
than ever before.
Cats Protection
Paws Protect, is a service run by Cats Protection which provides fostering
placements for cats so their owners can escape domestic abuse. Too often
people suffering from domestic abuse nd themselves unable to leave a
situation or cannot access safe accommodation without risk of being separated from
their pet. Pets themselves can also be victims, either of violence or neglect. Paws
Protect is a lifeline to cat owners. Cats Protection arranges for cats to be cared for in
a safe foster home, paying for all the cats’ needs, including food and any veterinary
treatment with regular updates given to their owners until they can be reunited. The
Foundation gave Cats Protection a grant of £315,000 over three years in November
2022 towards the expansion of Paws Protect into new areas which will enable it to
help more than 1800 families and 4500 cats per year by the end of 2025.
The Cats Whiskers
The Cats Whiskers is a small cat
charity based in Alva, near Stirling
which helps local cats through its
established network of fosterers who
care for the cats in their own homes.
Many are strays or arrive because
their owner has gone into care or can
no longer care for them. The charity
also works to help feral cats. In 2022 it
was given the opportunity to start its
own cat rehoming centre; but without
extra funds all they had was an empty
industrial unit. A grant of £80,500 from
the Foundation in July 2022 allowed
the charity to kit the unit out with
cat pens and supporting facilities,
securing the charity’s long-term future,
helpinghundreds more cats for the
years tocome.
Pets as Therapy
The Foundation’s biggest ever grant – £346,237 over three years was awarded in
May 2022 to Pets at Therapy. Their volunteers take their specially trained dogs into
settings such as hospitals, schools, care homes, hospices and more, bringing a smile
to many faces. People get the chance to chat to someone, and stroke and cuddle a
friendly dog or cat. Key benets include bringing comfort and companionship to those
who may feel lonely or isolated, supporting young people in education improve their
literacy skills and concentration, aiding in a patient’s recovery and improving mental
health and wellbeing.
The grant is being used to enable expansion of their team so they have local staff
able to recruit new volunteers, build relationships with more establishments, and
fundamentally touch the lives of more people. Within the rst year the charity is planning
to grow volunteer numbers to nearly 400, enabling them to work with over 500
different establishments, and conduct over 140,000 visits to individual pet lovers.
26 27
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023 Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
Pets continued
Pet Charity continued
Looking ahead
Quality Improvement and
ClinicalGovernance
In Autumn 2023 we will begin
participation in a ground-breaking
research project being run in
partnership with the Royal Vet College
and Vet Compass. Our involvement
will focus on improved stewardship
in veterinary antimicrobial usage
across all of our practices, using a
blended qualitative and quantitative
approach. The learnings and insights
from this multi-year project should
shape how antimicrobials are used
and prescribed across veterinary
practicesin years to come.
Pet charity
The Pets at Home Foundation will
continue to be there for pets when
they need us through our fundraising
and grant programme. We will see
benets start to be realised from one
of our largest grants of over £300k to
the Blue Cross foodbank programme.
This grant will be used to fund co-
ordinators to ensure the programme
is rolled out across the UK with the
ambition that anyone who needs to
access pet food from a food bank is
able to ensuring we collectively do
what we can to keep people with
theirpets at a time of need.
Pets at Home other charity initiatives
VIP lifelines
The VIP club reached its tenth birthday on January 2023 marking a huge milestone of £20 million raised for animal charities across the UK.
Every time a customer swipes or scans their card they are supporting the scheme. Over 800 charities are supported with Lifeline vouchers
allowing them to purchase food and essentials from Pets at Home for the pets in their care. This year over £3m was raised through VIP Lifelines.
Case studies
Foodbanks
As the UK continues to experience an unprecedented rise in the cost of living, we know
that pet owners will do everything they can to ensure their pets don’t miss out, but
we also understand that some owners may be facing difficult choices as their nances
become stretched. That’s why this year Pets at Home and Blue Cross have been
working together to providesupport.
In October 2022, together we launched a trial in a small number of stores, and now have
over 213 stores collecting food to support foodbanks within local communities. Every
donation point in our stores supports a foodbank within ten miles of the store, and we
have now fed more than 21,000 pets through this initiative, thanks to our customers and
clients. We plan to roll these out to most of our pet care centres by the Summer of2023.
Adoption Centres
As well as supporting rescues across the UK,
the Foundation rescues and rehomes small
animals at our own adoption centres based in
most Pets at Home stores. Our centres exist
for any owner who can no longer care for their
small pet. We take the pet in, covering any
medical care costs and providing them with
a temporary home, until a new loving forever
home is found. When a rabbit is adopted from
our centre into its loving home, it leaves with
vouchers for a free health check, vaccination
and neutering. Over the last 15 years we have
adopted over 900,000 pets into loving homes.
Hearing Dogs
Following a competitive selection
process, including an all-colleague
vote, our new Summer fundraising
campaign was awarded to Hearing
Dogs for Deaf People. The charity
was awarded an incredible £565k+.
This is the largest amount donated
through a fundraiser to a charity in
the Foundation's history. Hearing Dogs
will be supported again in July 2023's
Summer appeal.
The funds from Summer 2022 have
already supported 377 hearing
dog partnerships, which equates
to over a third of all partnerships
in the UK! Steve Heyes, Director of
communications and fundraising at
Hearing Dogs for Deaf People, said:
“Pets at Home’s support of Hearing
Dogs has made a huge difference to
the lives of deaf children and adults
across the UK. By raising money across
all areas of the business, Pets at Home
and their customers are funding
the support of all our hearing dog
partnerships for a year. The support
we provide our partnerships through
dedicated regional Partnership
Instructors includes home visits, health
and welfare advice, dog training
refresher sessions, the provision of
new essential equipment, and much
more. The support of Pets at Home
has been incredibly important to the
charity and to the dogs we train and
deaf people we help, so thank you to
everyone involved.”
Service Dogs UK
Service Dogs UK have been Members since 2012. Pets at Home
VIP Lifelines provide essential support with items such as
equipment and bedding for our dogs in foster. We use positive
training methods, so the healthy treats go a long way to help
them on their journey to become PTSD assistance dogs for our
Veterans. Thank you, Pets at Home, and our brilliant supporters!
Turkey and Syria Response
Following on from the shocking earthquake which devastated areas in southern Turkey
and northern Syria, Pets at Home rapidly pledged £100,000 to help individuals, families,
and communities caught up in the crisis. Of this, £50,000 was donated to the British
Red Cross to help with the immediate humanitarian rescue efforts in the region.
The remaining £50,000 was donated to the International Fund for Animal Welfare
(IFAW) enabling the organisation to rescue and protect animals in crisis, rebuild
following devastation, and work with communities to reduce risks by including
animals in emergency plans and policies everywhere disaster strikes.
Ukraine
At the end of FY22, we like many businesses
were devastated by the events in Ukraine. We
pledged £100k as a business and launched a
fundraiser at the end of March which raised
a staggering £100k in just under four weeks
thanks to the generosity of our customers,
clients and colleagues. During the last year
these funds have been donated to domestic and
international charitable organisations. £20,000
to IFAW, £20,000 to Four Paws and £160,000
to the Blue Cross which is supporting several
organisations on the ground including 'Save
the Dogs'. They have used the funds to launch
a neutering campaign on the streets in Ukraine
which will support 1000 pets being neutered.
This will have a signicant impact as it will
prevent unwanted litters on the street and
therefore support the long-term infrastructure
in the area.
Pets are part of the family, and we are really proud to
have partnered with Pets at Home on this scheme to
ensure we can reach as many pet owners in need as
possible, and keep families and companions together.
Chris Burghess, CEO at Blue Cross
Dogs Trust
Dogs Trust have been
Members since 2012. For the
last ten years we have supported
the Dogs Trust by providing the food
that they use to feed the dogs at
their 20centres across the UK, this
meant that over 3300 dogs were fed
this year alone.
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
29
28
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
People
Goal: To be the best
employer and developer
of pet care talent
Our approach
This year has seen a refresh of our People
pillar with a renewed strategic focus on
how we will become the best employer
and developer of pet care talent. In today's
competitive talent landscape, it has never
been more important to develop, support and
reward people and we know that how this is
done makes the difference between being
agood employer and a great employer.
In FY24 we will have an even greater strategic
focus on investing in pet care expertise
across all consumer facing roles, enabling
more clinical employment and development
opportunities to be created. Diversity
continues to remain a strategic priority
and we have committed to ensuring our
colleague base truly represents our diverse
communities within the next ve years.
Our focus areas for this report:
Culture, values and behaviours
Listening and engagement
Diversity and inclusion
Pet care expertise
Wellbeing and volunteering
Health and safety
Human rights
Highlights
5,700+
colleagues have completed
our new nutrition training
101
Vet Graduates
welcomed
189
apprentices welcomed
207
Mental Health First Aiders
trained in the Group
duringFY23
10,300
In line with our strategy to
engage all colleagues in the
long term success of the
business 10,300 colleagues
became new shareholders
or had their shareholding
enhanced in the sixth year
of our colleague RSP
11,000+
hours of colleague
volunteering donated
to community projects
7th
in the FTSE Female
leadersreview
50+
weekly live colleague
brieng events held
acrossthe year
1st
Winner of HR Impact
award at Personnel
Today awards 2022
New Strategic Priorities
Our goal of becoming the best employer and developer
of pet care talent will be achieved by:
– Continuous investment in pet care expertise
– Compelling clinical careers and development opportunities
– Colleagues fully representing our diverse communities
Our Refreshed Targets
Pet care expertise
By 2028 maximise pet care training investment
and opportunity creation
Diversity
By 2028 reect the diversity of the communities
we operate in, achieving 12% representation of
people from ethnicminorities
Community
By 2028 donate over 50,000 colleague hours
to support community organisations
Alignment to SDGs
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
31
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
30
2023 2022
l % Colleagues aged under 25 years old 25% 25%
l % Colleagues aged 25 to 34 years old 37% 39%
l % Colleagues aged 35 to 44 years old 20% 19%
l % Colleagues aged 45 to 54 years old 12% 11%
l % Colleagues aged 55 to 64 years old 6% 5%
l % Colleagues aged 65 and over 1% 1%
Gender Diversity all colleagues
2023
2023
25%
75%
2022
2022
26%
74%
Male
Female
2023
People continued
Our culture, values
and behaviours
Listening and engagement
Values and behaviours
Our values, were relaunched during 2021
and remain at the heart of our business
culture and strategy.
Engagement 82%
Wellbeing 82%
Diversity, inclusion and fair treatment 86%
As always is the case with surveys, below
the headlines the survey identied areas for
focus including ensuring in our busy work
environment we support and encourage
colleagues and their managers to have
time for regular catch ups. There were
areas of opportunity for the Vet side of
our business that were subsequently fed
into the strategic review around work life
balance and the service offering to the
Joint Venture partners.
Our Joint Venture Council is chaired by
one of our Joint Venture partners and is a
two-way forum that enables clinical and
business priorities and topics to be shared
and discussed.
This year they launched a Joint Venture
Partner specic survey to get qualitative
and quantitative feedback on service
provision with high degrees of participation
across Joint Ventures. Action plans are now
being developed with launch in FY24.
As we have returned to the office in person
regular leadership events have been held
in our support office enabling our senior
team (top 130) to meet and review strategy
and opportunities to work collaboratively
across the business. Our new CEO Lyssa
records regular videos for all colleagues
to share what is going on in the business
in an informal and accessible way. Eleven
of these diaries have been available on
YouTube and have been viewed 8982
times. Our weekly shoal for support office
colleagues provides an opportunity to
come together, hear operational business
updates, mark celebrations and hear about
upcoming strategic activities and initiatives.
Diversity and inclusion
Pets just see people, and this is the
foundation of our approach to diversity and
inclusion. We are committed to having a
diverse colleague base that represents the
communities we operate in. We have spent
this year building on the foundations that
were laid in 2021 and 2022 and are now
starting to see tangible changes happen.
We have made real progress with our
diversity data capture. This is critical to
enable us to gain a better picture of our
colleague base and the representation
across more diverse characteristics. In
coming years, we will be able to report on
other characteristics, such as ethnicity,
alongside our age and gender proles.
More than 90% of support office and
retail colleagues and 70% of our practice
colleagues have completed our diversity
and inclusion foundation training.
We have high colleague representation
from the LGBTQ+ community and we over-
index across all areas relative to the general
population. 14% of our colleagues are
LGBTQ+ according to our 2022 engagement
survey compared with 3.7% of the total
population according to data from the
2021 Census. Our last engagement survey
also showed our LGBTQ+ colleagues are
more engaged than our general colleague
population. To continue to support
the LGBTQ+ community this year we
launched anew policy on support for trans
colleagues. This, in only our second year of
disclosure, helped us signicantly increase
our Stonewall equality index ranking from
339 to 157, a jump of 182 places.
We are active members of the business
disability forum and proud to work
with the Prince’s Trust on their in-work
supportprogrammes.
Looking ahead, we are prioritising improving
our ethnic diversity, which is below the
national average, by focusing on how we can
attract and recruit more colleagues from an
ethnically diverse background. Our ambition
is to mirror the local communities in which
we operate by recruiting and retaining more
colleagues from the community within our
support office, retail and distribution areas.
Using the 2021 ONS data, we have analysed
the ethnicity of the communities in the
consumer catchment area around our stores,
and within a 30-minute drive-time from
Stafford DC and 60 minute drive-time from
Handforth support office and have set a target
of 12% which is based on this analysis. This
analysis and targets exclude the veterinary
part of our business but we are committed to
work on initiatives that will support greater
diversity at entry level into the profession. We
welcome the ndings and recommendations of
the Parker Review and have set a target of 18%
ethnicity for our senior managers (executive
management and direct reports). This reects
the current national average for ethnic diversity
representation based on 2021 ONS data, and
the population average within a 60-minute
drive-time from Handforth which is also
18%. We recognise that these are stretching
targets and they reect the importance that
we are placing on making progress here.
Our purpose
Our values
To create a beer world for pets and the people who love them
We put pets rst We’re experts
in our eld
We lead the way We help owners
be their best
We’re proud of what
we do together
Listening to colleagues is critical to any
business and we ensure colleagues are
listened to throughout the year by running
campaigns such as the Big Listen, We
Care engagement surveys and through
executive visits to stores, practices and
distributioncentres.
Members of our Executive Team have been
out and about across our pet care centres,
practices, support office and distribution
centres getting to know individuals, teams
and critically understanding their views
of our business. Similarly, the new Chief
Operating Officers for the Vet Group
and Retail division have taken similar
steps, as although they have worked in
our ecosystem for several years, they’re
listening now with a different focus given
their changed roles and remits.
68% of colleagues completed the
engagement pulse survey in May 2022.
Overall results were strong.
People sit at the heart of our business; they always have done, and they always will. Our culture is something we are
incredibly proud of. We believe it is one of the main reasons people choose to join us, why they stay and if they leave
why they continue to recommend others to join us.
Our behaviours bring our values to life. It’s how our colleagues act
each day in everything they do – be that providing expert care
and advice to pets and their owners, interactions with each
other or making a positive difference in their local community.
– Be courageous
– Be honest
– Be respectful
– Be inspiring
– Be supportive
Combined Group Pets at Home Retail Vet Group
FY23
Change
from prior
year FY23
Change
from prior
year FY23
Change
from prior
year
Gender
% of women on Plc Board (NED)* 43% 6% – – – –
% of women on Group Executive team* 71% 44% – – – –
% of roles held by women total business 74% -1% 65% 2% 88% 0%
% of senior management roles held by women 52% 8% 51% 7% 54% 11%
% of store managers women – – 44% 2% – –
% of JVP women – – – – 56% 1%
Experience
Colleagues with under two years' service 44% 45% 44%
Colleagues between two and five years' service 23% 22% 25%
Colleagues between five and ten years' service 19% 17% 23%
Colleagues over ten years' service 13% 15% 9%
% of store managers over ten years' service – 59% –
% of JVPs over ten years' service – – 43%
People data
We continue to be a business with strong
female representation across our business
and particularly within our retail and
veterinary divisions. What sets us apart is
that representation is seen at a senior level
as well as entry level roles. With 71% of our
Group Executive (44% growth c.f. FY22) and
52% of senior management roles (8% growth
c.f. FY22) now held by women, from FY22
our talent and succession pipeline is strong.
Our progress with gender representation
wascemented with seventh place in the
FTSEFemale Leaders Review in2023.
We continue to have a broad range of
experience with representation across years
served remaining relatively constant compared
to prior years. 59% of our retail pet care centre
managers have over ten years' experience which
is sector leading and 43% of our Joint Venture
Partners have also accumulated over ten years
service demonstrating their commitment to the
JV model. Our workforce is majority Gen Z and Y
which is broadly reective of today'sworkforce.
Colleague diversity data
29%
Colleague turnover
* Data as at 25 May 2023. All other data referenced is 31 March 2023.
32 33
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023 Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
People continued
Continuous investment
in pet care expertise
Colleague development, support and
reward is critical to our overall colleague
proposition and how we will retain and
attract talent in an increasingly competitive
market. In sectors such as veterinary and
data/IT this will mean we are well positioned
to attract high performing talent to our
teams. We have a steadfast ambition to
become the employer of choice not just for
pet care experts but for clinical talent and
to be famous for offering the best colleague
experience in the veterinary professions.
Compelling clinical careers and
development opportunities
Our award-winning vet graduate programme
continues to go from strength to strength
with 158 graduates across both cohorts.
They benet from around 180 hours of CPD
over the two year programme, 157% more
than their mandatory required amount.
The training focus continues to be as much
on their personal development as it is
their clinical with wellbeing initiatives and
support wrapped round everything. Our
EMS bursary programme has now been
running for four years (including a hiatus
during COVID-19) with 60 bursaries awarded
and a total investment of £40,000 in FY23.
This support means students receive vital
nancial support during some of their
most important veterinary training time
enabling them to focus completely on their
in-practice experience. Our ten scholarship
students at Nottingham vet school are
benetting from our nancial support.
We saw an uplift of 46% in our Veterinary
Nursing apprentices. This is a critical talent
category for us and one where we have
rm ambitions to drive further growth and
development in coming years by investing
in our proposition and approach to training.
We have continued to implement the
BVA Good workplace code, a veterinary
workplace code of conduct, across our
practice estate. Our focus this year is on
retention and improving practice culture.
Pet care expertise
We continue to invest and introduce
agship programmes for colleagues
building on an already strong learning
anddevelopment foundation. This year we
launched our ground-breaking Pet Care
Expert programme which is focused on
equipping our colleagues even further to
be the leading pet experts in their eld.
Every store can nominate a colleague to go
through the nine-month blended learning
programme. Since launch last Summer we
had just under 400 colleagues enrol, with
the rst cohort of graduates expected in
April 2023. This programme will be a critical
component of us developing and retaining
top talent and it provides the natural
follow-on pathway from our entry-level
pet care development programme.
Grooming expertise
In recognition of this profession and the
standards and skills needed to perform
the job safely and to a high standard we
remain committed to setting the standards
and provide leading levels of training and a
welfare focused environment. Colleagues
are required to complete their rst aid and
dog behaviour courses within the rst six
weeks, and are therefore able to handle
dogs attentively, and react quickly if rst
aid is required. As experts in our eld,
all grooming salon colleagues undergo
extensive training with over 1000 hours
of training required to be able to complete
our nine assessment stages on the ‘prep it’,
‘clip it’ and ‘snip it’ programme before they
can fully groom a dog. Their qualications
come with a tight quality assurance process
regulated by Ofqual, but more importantly,
the criteria are set by industry experts.
Looking ahead we are developing a bespoke
Pets at Home Grooming qualication that
builds on iPET’s existing level 3 diploma but
enhanced with additional modules to make
it the most comprehensive qualication in
the industry. We have an ambition for all our
salon managers and stylists to be qualied
within the next three years.
Apprenticeships
With a strong investment in ‘grow our
own’ talent, we have supported over 385
apprentices this year with programmes
ranging from Vet Nursing, Leadership, Data,
Finance and Dog Grooming. We have seen
a 61% uplift in numbers of apprentices vs
FY22. Being shortlisted as a nalist in the
Apprenticeship Employer award of the
year at the Personnel Today awards 2022
demonstrated the external recognition,
we have received for our work to create
opportunities for all.
We recently launched another cohort of our
Data Academy with a suite of qualications
designed to enhance our data capabilities
across our business; to future proof our
talent and enhance our data capabilities as
part of our strategy to use data to enhance
our design and decision-making principles.
37 colleagues are now benetting from or
have gained an apprenticeship qualication
in one of its four key programmes: AI data
specialist, a data science degree or a
datafellowship.
We have continued to support and invest in
our Kickstarter colleagues who began their
journeys with us around the time of the
COVID-19 pandemic. This vital programme
with the Prince's Trust enabled many young
people to access roles across our business
supporting them during the pandemic.
40% of our kick-starters secured roles with
us and are still with us – many have been
recognised with internal promotions.
Nutritional expertise
We successfully launched our nutritional training to
support the new nutrition matrix in FY23. We are now
developing our nutritional consultations and extending
the training to our vet colleagues. We created a new level
of nutrition expert training with input from an external
expert nutritionist as well as Vet partners, to enable
us to offer specialist nutrition guidance. Within nine
months of launch we have had over 5700 colleagues
completing the core modules and over 700 completing
the intermediate modules, easily achieving our ambition
of having one colleague per store with intermediate
leveltraining.
Our Fearless leadership programmes for managers
continues across our pet care centres and distribution
centres. These blended programmes receive exceptional
feedback and the learnings from them can clearly be
seen being implemented into the leadership of the teams.
Both our programmes run over seven months withover
four cohorts running this year.
Completion of mandatory training remains a requirement
for eligibility for bonus payments with over ten modules
that must be completed. In the last year alone over
135,000 modules have been completed by colleagues.
213,500
views of videos hosted on the L&D Vimeo
page via My Learning – resulting in 336days
worth of learning videos being watched
65
bespoke webinars delivered to colleagues
throughout the year
101
veterinary graduates recruited
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
35
34
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
Wellbeing, reward
and human rights
Health and Safety
Wellbeing remains at the heart of our
people strategy. It is important to us that
people feel looked after at and outside of
work and our wellbeing strategy places
equal importance across all the wellbeing
pillars: nancial, emotional, physical and
nutritional. We continue to be recognised
externally for what we do as this nancial
year we have been shortlisted for the
Wellbeing Team of the Year award at the
Great British Workplace Wellbeing Awards,
and for the Health and Wellbeing Award at
the Personnel Today awards.
Mental health support
We have continued to invest in our Mental
Health Training programme across the
business, training a further 207 colleagues
this year, building on the 458 who were
trained last year. This is providing vital
support to colleagues in practice at the
point of need. We concurrently invested
further in our Manager’s Mental Health
training programme bringing the total
trained across the business to 425.
Colleague appreciation day
For the last few years, we have celebrated
colleague appreciation day with our
colleagues and 2023 was no different. This
year colleagues were invited to choose
how they celebrated. Everyone received
a postcard printed on FSC certied paper
with a note to say thank you for all they do
and inviting them to choose how to spend
a £5 reward; they choose to donate it to the
Pets at Home Foundation, the Woodland
Trust, the Trussell Trust or treat themselves
to lunch. The response was overwhelming
with 15% of colleagues choosing to donate
their £5 to one of the chosen charities,
Trussell Trust, Woodland Trust and Pets
atHome Foundation.
Reward
Supporting and investing in our colleagues
remains a core strategic priority and this
has come to the fore even more with the
increase in cost of living affecting most of
our colleagues.
People continued
We continue to lead the way with our
‘earn to learn’ model for hourly rate retail
colleagues with over 80% of our hourly rate
retail colleagues being paid the Real Living
Wage through it. In April 2023 we increased
our retail hourly pay rates to a starting rate
of £10.60 (+10.4%) vs FY22.
We continue to invest in colleague share
ownership with 10,300 colleagues receiving
an award of free shares in 2023. Our
Sharesave scheme which operates at a 20%
discount option price. We continue to see
increased uptake from colleagues.
For more information on our reward strategy
see the Rem Co report in our Annual Report
on page 61.
Human rights
Our responsibilities for people extend
beyond the boundaries of our business.
With the appointment of our dedicated
Responsible Sourcing Specialist, we have
continued to make progress against our
plans. With the lifting of restrictions in China
we are anticipating being able to resume
inphysical factory visits during FY24.
This year we have updated our Supplier
Code of Conduct to ensure it continues to
provide clear and comprehensive supplier
expectations in relation to human rights,
environmental, ethical and legal standards.
We have added additional elements relating
to supply chain transparency, business
ethics, environmental compliance and
animal welfare. We have also launched our
Responsible Sourcing Handbook which
brings our Supplier Code of Conduct to life
with detailed implementation requirements,
guidance and signposting to additional
resources. We provide insight into how
we embed these principles into our own
operations and make commitments to our
suppliers on how we conduct business;
inviting them to tell us (condentially if
preferred) if we ever don’t meet these
commitments.
More information about our progress and
activity in this area can be found in our
Human Rights and Modern Slavery Statement.
Community volunteering
This year marked the second year of our community volunteering programme for
colleagues called Our Better World Pledge community days. Eligible colleagues
canake a paid day each year and volunteer for a community project of their choice.
Thisfreedom of choice enables them to spend their day aligned to what is important to
them. This day is also an underpin for colleagues on the group salaried bonus scheme
which helps drive further participation and demonstrates the measure of importance
the business places on it.
This year over 11,000 hours were donated by colleagues representing over 20%
increase compared to last year. 40% of projects supported the planet with many
havingco-benets for people and pets.
The safety and wellbeing of our colleagues,
partners and consumers remains our
top priority. During the nancial year
we launched additional modules for our
colleagues in the new Health and Safety
compliance centre. This has resulted in
improved awareness and compliance
across all aspects of health and safety
and provided the ability to monitor
compliancecentrally.
The launch of the new compliance centre
resulted in an increase in accidents across
the business, with colleague accident
rates increasing by 3.85 accidents per
1,000 colleagues, an increase in customer
accidents 0.53 per 100,000 transactions, and
an increase in RIDDOR accidents of 0.01 in
our stores and practices. In our Distribution
Centres, there was an increase of 0.14
accidents per 10,000 hours worked, and
RIDDOR accidents increased by 0.09 per
10,000 hours worked. This was expected to
be seen due to the improved way of reporting.
We have seen a decrease in the main
accident causations of previous years,
thisincludes decreases in animal bites,
slips and trips and being hit by something
moving, or falling or xed and stationary.
We record all incidents and report all
accidents in accordance with the Reporting
of Injuries, Diseases and Dangerous
Occurrence Regulations (RIDDOR).
– Continue to embed our safety
management system and support the
Group as we continue our transition
toour new distribution site at Stafford
Accident causations 2022–23
l Animal Bite 43%
l Animal Scratch 12%
l Cut or Scratch Due to Sharp Object 11%
l Exposed to or in Contact with a Harmful Substance 2%
l Hit By a Moving, Flying or Falling Object 5%
l Hit Something Fixed or Stationary 4%
l Injured Due to Handling, Lifting or Carrying 3%
l Injured Using Knives, Scissors, Sharp Objects 4%
l Other 6%
l Slipped, Tripped or Fell on the Same Level 10%
Looking ahead
1. Developing our pet care expertise
Developing market-leading pet expertise
development programmes and content
will be a key focus for us. We will
continue to build expertise across our
retail teams, driving and supporting
new food and consumer strategies and
helping to further connect consumers to
all parts of our ecosystem and build our
expertise across the ecosystem.
In the next cohort of our Pet Care
Expert programme colleagues will begin
their nine-month learning programme
and phase two of our unique nutrition
training programme will launch to all
colleagues involved in pet care across
our eco system, including our clinical
colleagues.
We also record all incidents where we
are aware the customer intends to go to
hospital as RIDDOR reportable. This does
result in some over reporting of RIDDORs.
The Group Health and Safety Committee
met quarterly and discussed various Health
and Safety issues as well as undertaking
deep dive projects. Our Distribution
Centres also hosted their own Health and
Safety Committees across each of the
DistributionCentres.
During the year we audited 896 sites (Vets/
Retail stores) and Fire Risk Assessed 897.
There have been no Health and Safety
Enforcement Notices served on any part
the Group.
Our focus in the coming year will be:
– Move all health and safety
documentation and record keeping
onto our Compliance centre making
H&S paperless
– Further improve the levels of
compliance and Group standards of
safety management in all our stores and
practices ensuring no Local Authority or
Fire Authority enforcement notices are
served on the business
– The further implementation of our
health and safety information, training
and record keeping software across all
locations that we operate
2. Supporting our clinical talent
development
We will launch a new clinical academy which
will help put us at the cutting edge of clinical
education and enable us to achieve our
veterinary business strategic goals. This will
support our work to create a sustainable
pipeline of highly engaged vet and nurse
talent with the clinical and behavioural skills
and experiences required to be part of highly
productive and effective clinical teams.
3. Improving our ethnic diversity
We are focused on increasing the
representation of ethnic diversity
amongstour colleagues to better
connectwith diverse pet owners and
reectthe communities we work in.
We will be further developing our inclusive
recruitment processes, and inclusive
leadership education to enable our leaders
and managers to full new representation
goals in an authentic and credible way.
We'll be continuously monitoring progress
through our enhanced diversity data
capture and reporting.
Gender pay report: https://investors.
petsathome.com/responsibility/policies-
and-reporting/gender-pay-gap-report/
Pets at Home policies: https://investors.
petsathome.com/responsibility/policies-
and-reporting/
Director's Remuneration Report:
Page61 of the Annual Report.
36 37
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023 Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
Highlights
– Continued to focus on the
monitoring and delivery of our
high standards of pet welfare
across the Group
– Reviewed and approved the
refresh of the sustainability
strategy and the creation of
strategic priority areas in the
planet, pet and people pillars
– Agreed a refreshed suite of
targets to support the delivery of
the refreshed strategyy over the
next 5 years
– Agreed the Group’s ongoing
development of it's approach to
the Task Force on Climate-related
nancial disclosure (TCFD)
– Reviewed and approved the
Responsible Sourcing Handbook
Plc Board of Directors
– Approves strategy and reviews
progress
– Focus on topics that feature
on the principal risk register
– Receives an update from each
management committee annually
– Approves policies and external
disclosure
ESG Committee
Executive Management Team
– Denes strategy
– Reviews progress
– Agrees large projects and costs
– Business integration
ESG Management Committees and associated groups
– Idea generation
– Operational delivery
– Project management
– KPI development
– Progress tracking
– Chaired by member of the Executive
Management team or a Director
Governance framework
Our Beer World Pledge
Strategy is supported
by a robust governance
framework
The management committees and associated groups have continued to meet regularly across the year.
Each of these is chaired by a Director and sponsored by a member of the Executive Management Team. The vet specic elements of the
strategy are managed by the Vet Group Better World Pledge Committee. The Executive Management team and ESG Committee receive a
progress update from the committees and groups at various frequencies during the year. Climate change is a standing item at every Board
meeting and at every ESG committee meeting.
ESG Governance
ESG Committee Chair's summary
This year we have made
signicant progress against
the goals of Our Better World
Pledgestrategy and embedding
itat the core of our business
The ESG Committee oversees the
governance of our sustainability strategy,
Our Better World Pledge. In my fth year
as Chair I am delighted to see the progress
that we have made in the rst two years of
the strategy. I am particularly excited about
the initiatives that we have now delivered
that are visible to our customers.
Our pet pouch collection points are now
in 94% of our petcare centres and the pet
food collection units that are currently in
213 stores and rolling out to all, helping
pet owners impacted by the cost of living
crisis to feed their pets. The Pet memory
scheme in its second year has raised over
£500k to date which has created, protected
and restored over 4000 acres of native UK
woodland. The Pets at Home Foundation
reaching its £50m fundraising milestone
and VIP lifelines reaching £20m this year
are all fantastic achievements.
Engaging suppliers in sustainability will
become increasingly important with the
inclusion of this content in the annual
supplier conference and development
ofasupplier knowledge hub.
The committee has continued to maintain
a regular and detailed review of pet welfare
and regularly reviews the Group’s policies
and procedures in its retail business and
supply chain, and the development of
its clinical governance framework in the
veterinary business.
Human rights have received an annual
deep dive as part of the modern slavery
act statement approval and an updated
supplier code of conduct was reviewed and
approved along with the plans to launch
a consolidated Responsible Sourcing
Handbook for suppliers that contains all
relevant policies and supporting guidance
in one document. The Group’s Human
Rights specialist provided a detailed
update on ethical audit progress and plans
to resume in house audits in China when
COVID-19 restrictions allow. China was
discussed as an area of concern because it
had been almost three years since physical
audits had taken place and it is the Group’s
largest sourcing country outside of the UK.
In recognition of this concern some deep
dive audits had been conducted by an
independent third party and the results
ofthese were discussed.
The ESG committee has been focused on
how we maintain this momentum but also
continue to re-evaluate where we have
most opportunity to impact and where
we need to address to ensure that we are
creating a sustainable business. For this
reason a strategy refresh was conducted
during the year. This has identied strategic
priorities under our impact pillars of planet,
pet and people. These are fully aligned
to the business strategy and were the
top scoring topics when we conducted a
detailed materiality assessment.
As we look ahead to FY24 the committee
will continue to focus on the review of ESG
risks and pet welfare. In addition we will
agree the strategies and review progress in
relation to sustainability strategic priority
areas of pet food and supplier scope 1
and 2 carbon maturity; monitor delivery
against our net zero targets and review
how these are embedded into the relevant
business areas. We will also review how we
are strengthening the sustainability skills
andcapability across the business.
Susan Dawson
Chair of the ESG Committee
For the full ESG committee report
see pages 50–51 in the 2023 Annual Report
Vet Better World Pledge CommitteePets at Home Foundation
Pet Welfare CommitteeResponsible Product Committee
People Steering GroupClimate Change & Waste Committee
38 39
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023 Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
Assurance statement
Scope
We have been engaged by Pets at Home
Group Plc to perform a ‘limited assurance
engagement’, as dened by International
Standards on Assurance Engagements,
here after referred to as the engagement,
to report on Pets at Home Group Plc’s
Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHG) – Scope1
(tCO
2
e); Indirect GHG emissions – Scope
2 (tCO
2
e) – location-based; Scope 3 GHG
(Category 4: Diesel (3rd party) and Category
6: Business Travel (3rd Party)) (tCO
2
e); and
Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions intensity
(tCO
2
e/ £m revenue) (the 'Subject Matter')
for the year ended 30 March 2023 in Pets
at Home Group Plc’s 2023 Sustainability
Report (‘the Report’).
Other than as described in the preceding
paragraph, which sets out the scope of our
engagement, we did not perform assurance
procedures on the remaining information
included in the Report, and accordingly,
we do not express a conclusion on this
information.
Criteria applied by Pets at Home
GroupPlc
In preparing the Subject Matter, Pets at
Home Group Plc applied the WBCSD/
WRI’s Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol
reporting criteria as established under the
Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting
(SECR) requirements, and any specic
criteria outlined in Pets at Home Group Plc’s
Basis of Preparation (Criteria) as annotated
on p.14 of the Report.
Pets at Home Group Plc’s
responsibilities
Pets at Home Group Plc’s management
is responsible for selecting the Criteria,
and for presenting the Subject Matter in
accordance with that Criteria, in all material
respects. This responsibility includes
establishing and maintaining internal
controls, maintaining adequate records
and making estimates that are relevant to
the preparation of the Subject Matter, such
that it is free from material misstatement,
whether due to fraud or error.
EY’s responsibilities
Our responsibility is to express a conclusion
on the presentation of the Subject Matter
based on the evidence we have obtained.
We conducted our engagement in
accordance with the International Standard
for Assurance Engagements Other Than
Audits or Reviews of Historical Financial
Information (‘ISAE 3000’), and the terms of
reference for this engagement as agreed
with Pets at Home Group Plc on 24 April
2023. This standard requires that we plan
and perform our engagement to obtain
limited assurance about whether, in all
material respects, the Subject Matter is
presented in accordance with the Criteria,
and to issue a report. The nature, timing,
and extent of the procedures selected
depend on our judgment, including
an assessment of the risk of material
misstatement, whether due to fraud or error.
We believe that the evidence obtained is
sufficient and appropriate to provide a basis
for our limited assurance conclusions.
Description of procedures performed
Procedures performed in a limited
assurance engagement vary in nature
and timing from, and are less in extent
than for a reasonable assurance
engagement. Consequently the level of
assurance obtained in a limited assurance
engagement is substantially lower than the
assurance that would have been obtained
had a reasonable assurance engagement
been performed. Our procedures were
designed to obtain a limited level of
assurance on which to base our conclusion
and do not provide all the evidence that
would be required to provide a reasonable
level of assurance.
Although we considered the effectiveness
of management’s internal controls when
determining the nature and extent of our
procedures, our assurance engagement
was not designed to provide assurance
on internal controls. Our procedures did
not include testing controls or performing
procedures relating to checking aggregation
or calculation of data within IT systems.
A limited assurance engagement
consists of making enquiries, primarily
of persons responsible for preparing the
subject matter and related information,
and applying analytical and other
appropriate procedures.
Our procedures included, but were not
limited to:
1. Conducting reporting system
walkthroughs with data owners, as well
as gaining a detailed understanding of
the data collection, aggregation and
collation process.
2. Performing a desktop review of the
draft Report and underlying data sets
to gain a detailed understanding of
the approach taken by Pets at Home
Group Plc regarding the disclosure and
presentation of the information.
3. Interviewing key personnel responsible
for the preparation of data included in
the Report.
4. Conducting analytical tests of
selected data to identify variations,
conrm signicant movements with
management and, where necessary,
perform additional tests of detail.
5. Testing the data collection, aggregation
and validation processes and systems
used to prepare the information in the
2023 Sustainability Report by tracing
the ow of information from its origin to
its inclusion in the Report.
6. Conrming whether the appropriate
calculation methodologies and
conversion/emissions factors and
measurement criteria had been applied.
7. Read the nal 2023 Sustainability Report
for consistency of the disclosures with
the information provided.
Conclusion
Based on our procedures and the evidence
obtained, we are not aware of any material
modications that should be made to the
Subject Matter in the Report for the year
ended 30 March 2023, in order for it to be
inaccordance with the criteria.
Independent Assurance
Statement to the Directors
of Pets at Home Group Plc
Use of our Assurance Statement
We disclaim any assumption of
responsibility for any reliance on this
assurance report or its conclusions to
anypersons other than Pets at Home
GroupPlc, or for any purpose other
thanthat for which it was prepared.
Accordingly, we accept no liability
whatsoever, whether in contract, tort
or otherwise, to any third party for any
consequences of the use or misuse of
thisassurance report or its conclusions.
Our independence and quality control
We have maintained our independence
andconrm that we have met the
requirements of the Code of Ethics for
Professional Accountants issued by the
International Ethics Standards Board
for Accountants and have the required
competencies and experience to conduct
this assurance engagement.
EY also applies International Standard on
Quality Management 1, Quality Control for
Firms that Perform Audits and Reviews of
Financial Statements, or Other Assurance
and Related Services Engagements, and
accordingly maintains a comprehensive
system of quality control including
documented policies and procedures
regarding compliance with ethical
requirements, professional standards and
applicable legal and regulatory requirements.
Ernst & Young LLP
London
9 June 2023
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
41
40
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
Topic Accounting metric
SASB
reference Link to Pets at Home reporting
Energy Management
in Retail/Distribution
Total energy consumed, % grid electricity, % renewable
energy
CN0403-01 See page 13 of our Sustainability Report FY23, entitled
‘Our operational impacts’.
Data Security Discussion of management approach to identifying and
addressing data security risks
CN0403-02 See page 25 of our Annual Report FY23, entitled
‘Information Security and business critical systems’.
Workforce Diversity
and Inclusion
Percentage of gender and racial/ethnic group representation
for (1) management and (2) all other employees
CN0403-04 See page 33 of our Sustainability Report FY23,
entitled ‘Diversity and inclusion and People data’.
Fair Labour Practices Average hourly wage and percentage of in-store
employees earning minimum wage, by region (country)
CN0403-06 See page 62 of our Annual report FY23, entitled
‘Investment in base pay'.
(1) Voluntary and (2) involuntary employee turnover rate
for in-store employees
CN0403-07 See page 33 of our Sustainability Report FY23, entitled
‘Colleague turnover data’.
Product Sourcing,
Packaging and
Marketing
Revenue from products third-party certied to
environmental and/or social sustainability standards
CN0403-09 See page 16 of our Sustainability Report FY23, entitled
‘Value chain impacts'.
Description of strategies to reduce the environmental
impact of packaging
CN0403-11 See page 15 of our Sustainability Report FY23,
entitled ‘Waste and recycling' and page 18, entitled
‘Packaging data’.
Reporting frameworks, Indices and mapping to the Sustainable Development goals (SDGs)
In 2015, the United Nations published the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); 17 ambitious goals which aim to end poverty,
protect our planet and increase prosperity and peace for all. We continue to fully support and contribute to these goals through a
wide range of actions including reducing emissions to tackle climate change and recognising the value that pets bring to human
wellbeing. We will be disclosing ourcontributions to below goal level from FY23 reporting.
TCFD developed a framework to help public companies and other organisations more effectively disclose climate-related risks
and opportunities through their existing reporting processes. Pets at Home are committed to implementing the recommendations
of Task Force for Climate Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) and have been making progress towards embedding climate
considerations into our reporting and decision making, as well as targets in place to measure progress and incentivise performance.
For our TCFD disclosure, please see our Annual Report and Financial Statements 2022.
CDP is a not-for-prot charity that runs the global disclosure system for investors, companies, cities, states and regions to manage
their environmental impacts. Pets at Home participate in the CDP surveys relating to climate change. We have been award an ‘B’
rating for our climate change disclosure for two consecutive years and are committed to use thistool to track our progress
and guide our priorities.
The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) is an independent nonprot organisation that sets standards to guide the
disclosure of nancially material sustainability information by companies to their investors. SASB Standards identify the subset of
environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues most relevant to nancial performance in each of 77 industries. In 2022, we
published our second SASBdisclosure.
Morgan Stanley Capital International ESG Rating is designed to measure a company’s resilience to long-term industry material
environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks. MSCI use a rules-based methodology to identify industry leaders and laggards,
and their ESG Ratings range from leader (AAA, AA), average (A, BBB, BB) tolaggard (B, CCC). Weranked AA as an industry leader
in 2022 and for the last three years.
Sustainalytics ESG Rating measures how well companies proactively manage the environmental, social and governance issues that
are the most material to their business, with a focus on a companies’ ability to mitigate risks and capitalise on opportunities. We
scored 13.68 in their 2022 ESG risk rating which is a low-risk. Thishas improved from a strong low-risk score of 15.52 in 2020.
Policies and procedures
Please see the corporate website for our
policies and other disclosures including:
– Diversity and Inclusion policy
– Packaging policy
– Environmental policy
– Human Rights policy
– Raw Material Sourcing policy
– Supplier code of conduct
– Whistleblowing policy
– Human Rights and Modern
SlaveryStatement
– Code of Ethics and Business Conduct
– Anti-Bribery policy
– Gender Pay Gap Report
– Responsible Sourcing Handbook
SASB
The Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) has developed a set of industry-specic sustainability standards. These identify
nancially material metrics for companies to communicate their sustainability approach and performance to investors. Our Social Value
report communicates a number of the SASB metrics, based on the standards for the Multiline and Speciality Retailers & Distributors industry.
Find out more:
https://investors.petsathome.com
SASB alignment and policies
42
Pets at Home Group Plc Sustainability Report 2023
Pets at Home Group Plc
Chester House
Epsom Avenue
Handforth,
Wilmslow
Cheshire
SK9 3RN
United Kingdom
petsathome.com