Vets Now joining IVC

RE: Vets Now joining IVC

grumpyoldman — Wed, 02 Jan 2019 07:08:32 GMT

We do watch al of this from a distance. So far its not impinged itself on our day to day business and hard to actually see how it will do in the foreseeable future. I am glad that they have apparently started to treat people better and value long term loyalty. I still think that concentrating night work in one place makes it more stressful for the individuals concerned and the long term effects of shift patterns, particularly night work do shorten peoples life spans and increase personal stressors like divorce etc. I am also very unsure about the benefits of the minimum database in every case of diahorrea that decides to ring the vet at 2am with a pet plan. I also think that the vets now business may have been affected by the CVS My night vet service expansion which certainly appears to have taken a chunk of their business away from them in this area. Where it will all end ?. who knows. My guess is that as they get up to 80% ownership and market share ,the fees will get up to a point where they will start to get client resistance, which will in turn limit inward investment and reduce returns. Problems will appear if post brexit there is economic instability and borrowing gets expensive with no capital assets to fall back on. The bubble will certainly deflate if not burst. With the new schools coming on line we may suddenly find there is a glut of new applicants for the jobs everyone was struggling to fill a year ago .

RE: Vets Now joining IVC

Anthony Dennison — Fri, 28 Dec 2018 12:21:41 GMT

We're an IVC practice, with hospital status and we do our own OOH and that of the local IVC practices. We had a call from a Vets4Pets in Lancaster (about 45-60mins away) asking to send a cat over for hospitalisation over Christmas prior to having a procedure done this week, rather than send it to their normal OOH provider.

We have a VetsNow working out of a Vets4Pets half an hour from us. Will be interesting to see what happens going forward.

RE: Vets Now joining IVC

Will McMullan — Sat, 22 Dec 2018 11:53:05 GMT

[quote user="Dave Leicester"]The average length of service at the company has more than doubled in recent years.[/quote]

How long is it now?

RE: Vets Now joining IVC

Dave Leicester — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 14:06:34 GMT

[quote user="Martin Atkinson"]

[quote user="Neil Wheadon"]They run in other vets surgeries and few if any? are IVC practices. [/quote]Coincidentally our VetsNow rep called in yesterday to drop off a Christmas card and some choccies. She knew no more than me about the takeover but she did say that 3/9 of the VetsNow host practices she covers are already owned by IVC.

[/quote]

Nearly 20% of our hosts are IVC owned.

RE: Vets Now joining IVC

Dave Leicester — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 11:51:46 GMT

[quote user="Neil Wheadon"]

Wow!!

1) Vets Now aside Penguin House have no tangible assets. They run in other vets surgeries and few if any? are IVC practices.

2) OOH clinics have a high churn rate and will be affected by Brexit (It's a fact folks) as reliant on many EU vets

3) Many Vets Now cater for charity clinics where these could almost be described as loss leaders. Where does this leave the PDSA?

Vets Now had an operating profit of 1.74 Million in 2017 dropped from 3.11 Million in 2016 (source Company House) so for a company with no tangible asset, Richard Dixon must be delighted.

I've locummed for IVC practices and they are well regarded by the staff, similarly Vets Now were a lovely company to work for, so interesting move.

Neil

[/quote]

Some incomplete/incorrect information there Neil.

1) Vets Now owns three 24/7 referral hospitals (the largest of which Glasgow has just completed a massive expansion development), Penguin House and a number of other properties around the UK.

2) The average length of service at the company has more than doubled in recent years. It's true LoS will always be shorter than in day work, but it's certainly untrue to describe it as a high 'churn rate' any more. Who knows what will happen with Brexit, but whatever does will affect the whole profession, not just Vets Now.

3) The PDSA hosted sites are not 'loss leaders' and never have been. They are a critical part of the business contributing significant revenue. There will be no effect on the relationship with the PDSA or indeed any other independent or corporate practice as a consequence of this sale.

The drop in operating profits was as a direct consequence of massive investment in staffing levels, staff salaries and staff benefits packages in the past 2 years, including introducing additional holiday (and your birthday off!) for all staff. Vets Now are now offering highly competitive remuneration packages for all career options. This has led to the company having the highest permanent staff employment and retention figures in the past 10 years.

IVC have purchased an extremely healthy company.

RE: Vets Now joining IVC

David Mills — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 10:10:25 GMT

Vets Now and IVC aren't going to compete for business, I imagine they will just consolidate both services, it makes complete financial sense. However it will reduce OOH service providers further - what happens if one of those goes under?

RE: Vets Now joining IVC

Martin Atkinson — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 10:07:09 GMT

RE: Vets Now joining IVC

Bob Russell — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 09:53:36 GMT

VetsNow may not have significant assets but as I understand it IVC own very little either as the property's largely remain within the ownership of the original sellers or are otherwise leased.

Traditional practices were based around owned property but now this is much less the norm.

If all you own are the contents then these are depreciating assets that leaves your staff as your main asset (which they generally are!).

RE: Vets Now joining IVC

Silvia Maldonado — Fri, 21 Dec 2018 01:07:01 GMT

Same as here, and I guess there will be other places with IVC providing OOH services within a few miles from a Vets Now clinic.

My wonder is if IVC will not decide to manage without one of those practices too close to each other, specially if there is a staff shortage, and that way improving the profits. On the other hand there is an agreement or a contract with the clinic where Vets Now provides its services which IVC may want to keep.

RE: Vets Now joining IVC

Clive Ansell — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 18:29:46 GMT

Interesting times indeed.

2 of my local practices are branch practices to a large 24/7 hospital status practice, all IVC. It is about 2 miles from Vets-Now and they seem to compete for OOH work - wonder what will happen their?

Not that I'm cynical at all, but what would happen when/if it all goes mammaries up and the investors all want their money back ??

RE: Vets Now joining IVC

Adam Sheridan — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 18:28:03 GMT

My concern would be that we may be in very uncertain times, if IVC was to ever go under the we would loose so many practices that animals across the UK would be at huge risk, over night we could loose a 3rd of our practices and huge number of emergency surgeries. Surely the Competition Commission may have to stop IVC buying up anymore until it can prove that this investment it needs is secure?

RE: Vets Now joining IVC

Neil Wheadon — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 18:23:06 GMT

Wow!!

1) Vets Now aside Penguin House have no tangible assets. They run in other vets surgeries and few if any? are IVC practices.

2) OOH clinics have a high churn rate and will be affected by Brexit (It's a fact folks) as reliant on many EU vets

3) Many Vets Now cater for charity clinics where these could almost be described as loss leaders. Where does this leave the PDSA?

Vets Now had an operating profit of 1.74 Million in 2017 dropped from 3.11 Million in 2016 (source Company House) so for a company with no tangible asset, Richard Dixon must be delighted.

I've locummed for IVC practices and they are well regarded by the staff, similarly Vets Now were a lovely company to work for, so interesting move.

Neil

RE: Vets Now joining IVC

Bob Russell — Thu, 20 Dec 2018 18:01:35 GMT

A little closer to a monopoly situation.

We have been assured that it will remain run independently. We shall see what happens next!