Brilliant Businesses: The Pet Vet
In this series of ‘Brilliant Businesses’ blog posts, we take a look at some of the best businesses that our Valuation Services team has worked with.
Business. Built around You.
Pictured: Dr Mel Fuller (CEO, The Pet Vet) and Dr Rob Jones (Chairman and Founder, The Pet Vet)
WHERE IT ALL BEGAN
Chairman and Founder Dr Rob Jones MRCVS opened the first The Pet Vet surgery in Doncaster in 2011 with a progressive vision to offer a different proposition to colleagues, customers, and their pets. To date, they have 12 independent surgeries across the country and boast an impressive turnover of £22.3 million for the financial year 2024/25. Working alongside CEO, Dr Mel Fuller, Rob remains actively involved in the business, ensuring his founding values are sustained and that The Pet Vet remains in his family, always.
THE GROUP’S EVOLUTION
In their first decade, The Pet Vet organically grew to four large surgeries in the South Yorkshire and Lincolnshire regions. In July 2022, they acquired The Vet from CVS, adding a further eight surgeries and establishing a national presence. Following this acquisition, the group focused on restructuring their operating model to optimise efficiencies, creating new career pathways for clinical and non-clinical colleagues, and investing in new equipment for in-house advanced services. To complete the integration of the eight The Vet surgeries, a 10-month rebranding project commenced, which was completed in February 2025.
WHAT MAKES THE BUSINESS UNIQUE AND IMPRESSIVE?
At the time of writing, The Pet Vet has 63,115 active customers and 83,306 active pets on their register. The group enjoys the benefits of being both an independent organisation and being large enough to have a national presence – placing them in a unique position in the market, with little competition at this scale, all the while retaining a focus on offering the highest quality, tailored service to customers.
Like every first-opinion veterinary practice, they offer a full suite of GP services and pet health plans. However, because they’re not governed by a corporate entity, they have the flexibility to tailor their offering to suit the needs of local communities. For added customer convenience and wrap-around patient care, they’re open 364 days a year and offer home visits, late-night appointments, and overnight hospitalisation.
Their business model differs from the typical archetypes, with every surgery (designed by Rob) being purpose-built with large, modern facilities and supported by continuous investment. This attracts market-leading veterinary colleagues and gives them the capacity and capability to perform advanced in-house diagnostics and treatments.
With a lot of talk in the sector about fair pricing, particularly following the announcement of the Competition and Markets Authority’s review into the sector, transparency in the veterinary market is essential. The Pet Vet’s value proposition stands out as an incredibly important part of their business model. Appreciating the challenges of the cost of pet ownership, the group considers it their ethical duty to maintain full transparency around the cost of products and services, so they publish clear pricing on their website and in their surgeries. Customers are also offered choices in their pet’s treatment, receive estimated costs, and must formally consent before any treatment commences. Their fair price guarantee, quarterly price reviews, and CarefreeCredit 0% finance scheme ensure that every customer has the opportunity to provide the best healthcare for their pets.
Pictured: The Pet Vet's clinical team
THE FUTURE OF THE PET VET
The Pet Vet is definitely a business to watch. A recent financing deal secured with HSBC, facilitated by Castle Square Corporate Finance, marks the start of an exciting period of growth for the group. The Pet Vet are now looking to secure new surgery sites, bringing their exceptional clinical care and customer service to more pet owners across the UK. Meanwhile, they will continue to invest in their existing estate, developing services to provide customers with a greater choice of veterinary care in their local area, and tailoring their offering to suit the needs of each local community.
Digital transformation also remains a key objective for the group in the coming year, as they plan to relaunch their website and use AI and integrated workflow tools to improve efficiencies and the customer experience.
As The Pet Vet grows, Dr Rob Jones is resolute in his desire for The Pet Vet to remain an independent, family-owned business for generations to come. He said, “There's huge ambition for us to be able to offer more advanced treatments, unlock the use of technology to further enhance our customer service and patient care, and to reach new communities. We aim to deliver exceptional clinical standards in state-of-the-art surgeries, whilst maintaining our caring, compassionate culture that meets the needs of each local community.”
For a confidential discussion about the value of your business, contact Joe Swiers: joe.swiers@christie.com / +44 7791 979 345