Top dog: Pets at Home appoints Lyssa McGowan as chief executive
Pets at Home has poached its new chief executive Lyssa McGowan from Sky UK with the offer of a £580,000 salary.
McGowan, who is due to take the reins in June 2022, will succeed the current boss Peter Pritchard who took up the role in 2018. Pets at Home has sourced its new chief executive from Sky UK where McGowan is the outgoing chief consumer officer with responsibility for a branch of the business serving more than 10m customers and achieving over $10bn of revenue.
“I am thrilled to be joining Pets at Home as CEO,” said McGowan. “It is a fantastic business with a unique, integrated business model, and a strong purpose-led culture fuelled by the shared passion of over 15,000 colleagues and Partners to care for pets, and the people who love them.”
McGowan will be offered a base salary of £580,000 which reflects the outgoing chief executive’s salary of £550,000 with an increase of 5.5per cent, applied. In addition, she will receive a pension contribution of 6.5 per cent, an annual bonus maximum award of 170 per cent, and an RSP maximum of 100 per cent of base salary the company said.
Brokers at Liberum praised the appointment of McGowan labelling the move a “high quality, very experienced hire” and giving Pets at Home’s stock a buy rating.
“Her consumer, subscription, and data/digital credentials are in sync with PETS self-help levers that give us confidence it can continue its impressive progress of the past few years,” Liberum analysts wrote.
“The group is in an enviable position and should have a multi-year benefit from the increase in pet ownership seen over COVID,” they continued. “PETS is at peak earnings, yet including the recent share price fall, its PE is now only sitting at 55 per cent of peak on 17x. This seems unwarranted at a time when the visibility around strong future growth and margin expansion is high.”
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