Pets at Home to hand back Covid rates relief
Pets at Home will repay in full £28.9m of business rates relief it received during the pandemic.
Pets at Home's boss said the company was "very grateful" for the relief provided back in March.
It follows similar moves by the UK biggest supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury's and Asda.
Some retailers, whose sales have boomed during the crisis, have been criticised for taking government help while paying dividends to shareholders.
Peter Pritchard, chief executive of Pets at Home, said that the cash had helped the firm take the decision to keep its stores, online operations and veterinary practices open during the pandemic.
Pets at Home is classed as an essential retailer and its shops were allowed to stay open during lockdown restrictions.
In March, all retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in England were given a business rates holiday for 12 months to help them get through the crisis.
But supermarkets including Tesco, Morrisons, Aldi and Asda, have since pledged to repay more than £1.8bn in rates relief, citing strong sales during Covid.
Pets at Home's sales between April and October rose by 5.1% to £574.4m while pre-tax profit grew by more than 14% to £38.9m.
Mr Pritchard said at the time that pet ownership had surged during Covid as people spent more time at home and devoted extra leisure time to activities such as walking or grooming their dogs and cats.
The strong trading prompted the retailer to pay a 2.5p dividend, worth £12.4m, despite having received business rates relief.
'Acting responsibly'
On Friday, Mr Pritchard said Pets at Home "is a robust business, both operationally and financially" and its decision to return the business rates relief "demonstrates our clear commitment to acting responsibly and treating all of our stakeholders fairly".
He added that the repayment meant that the £35m in Covid-related costs it has been forced to pay would no longer be off-set by the relief it had received.
Pets at Home said in November that it had lost £17m from implementing new safety measures including its grooming salons and restricting its veterinary services to emergency treatments only.
The company will also be shutting its stores on Boxing Day, costing an estimated £3m in sales, to give its staff "a rest".
Pets at Home has not placed any employees on furlough, and despite the disruption and additional costs stemming from the pandemic, it expects full-year profits to be in line with last year's underlying figures of £93m.
