pet valu holdings ltd reported a larger rise in profit than analysts expected in the first quarter as sales increased the canadian specialty retailer of pet food and petrelated supplies said earnings per share were 32 canadian cents or 25 us cents compared with c003 a share in the first quarter of 2021 according to factset analysts were expecting c028 a share total retail revenue rose to c2133 million from c1701 million beating analyst expectations of c2001 million systemwide sales rose 30 to c2859 million with samestore sales growth of almost 23 in the period benefiting from increase in samestore transactions and a 37 increase in samestore average spend per transaction our strong samestore sales growth was supported by favourable traffic and basket trends which together with our loyalty data highlights our continued ability to draw in new devoted pet lovers while increasing shareofwallet with our existing customers driving overall market share gains said president and chief executive officer richard maltsbarger