If you’ve noticed that your local vet practice seems to have changed hands recently, you’re not imagining it. The UK veterinary sector has undergone rapid consolidation over the last decade, and the pace shows little sign of slowing.
In 2013, independent practices accounted for the large majority of the market. By 2024, six corporate groups owned around 60% of UK vet practices. The “big six” are CVS Group, IVC Evidensia, Linnaeus, Medivet, VetPartners, and Pets at Home through its Vets4Pets brand. Between them, they have reshaped what it means to work in veterinary practice in the UK.
So yes, independent vets still exist. But the landscape around them has changed significantly, and if you’re considering a career in veterinary practice, that matters.
How did we get here?
Until 1999, only qualified and registered vets could own a veterinary practice. That helped keep practices in professional hands and made the partnership model the standard route to seniority. You would join a practice as an assistant, build your career, buy into a partnership, and eventually have a stake in something you had helped build.
Deregulation opened the door to outside investment. Corporate consolidators, many backed by private equity, began acquiring practices in increasing numbers. The model is straightforward: buy practices at scale, centralise purchasing and administration, and grow revenue. Practices often retain their original names, which is one reason many owners do not realise their local “independent” has changed hands.
What it means for pet owners
The Competition and Markets Authority launched a formal investigation into the veterinary sector in 2024, partly in response to concerns about pricing and transparency. Its findings led to reforms that include clearer price information, disclosure of ownership, written estimates for certain treatments, and limits on prescription fees.
The CMA also found that routine services at large veterinary groups were generally more expensive than at independent practices, and that prices had risen sharply over the period it examined.
That does not mean every corporate practice is expensive or every independent is cheaper. But it does mean ownership structure can affect what clients pay and how easy it is to compare options.
What it means if you work in the sector
For veterinary professionals, consolidation is about more than prices. It affects working conditions, clinical autonomy, career progression, and workplace culture.
Some vets and nurses report that corporate ownership brings genuine benefits: investment in equipment, structured CPD, clear career pathways, and the stability of a larger employer behind them. Centralised HR, maternity and sickness cover, and professional support structures can be a real improvement on the underfunded independent practice model.
Others describe pressure on appointment times, targets that sit uneasily with clinical judgement, and a sense that decision-making has moved further from the consulting room. The British Veterinary Union, part of Unite, has been vocal about working conditions in the sector, particularly in corporate-owned practices.
The reality varies considerably between employers and even between individual practices within the same group. A corporate-owned practice with strong local leadership can be an excellent place to work. An underfunded independent can be the opposite. Ownership is one factor, not the whole picture.
Are independents worth seeking out?
If you’re looking for work in veterinary practice and the independent model appeals to you, they are still out there. Sole-practitioner practices, small partnerships, charity practices and specialist independents continue to operate across the UK, often in rural areas and smaller towns where the economics of corporate acquisition are less attractive.
Some vets who left corporate employment have set up new independent practices, partly in response to the concerns described above. There is also a growing number of smaller regional groups that sit between the traditional independent and the big six: professionally owned, multi-site, but not backed by private equity.
If you’re starting out
If you’re entering the veterinary sector, you’re likely to start your career in a corporate-owned practice simply because they now represent a large share of the employer market. That’s not necessarily a problem. The key is understanding what you’re working within: how decisions are made, what progression looks like, and what your rights are as an employee.
Knowing how to ask the right questions at interview, understanding what clinical autonomy you will have, and being clear about your own values around practice culture will serve you better than approaching every corporate practice with suspicion or every independent with uncritical enthusiasm.
The sector is changing. The independent vet is not extinct, but the profession your predecessors trained into looks quite different from the one you’re entering. Going in with clear eyes is the best starting point.
Further Reading: CMA announcement on vet sector reforms.