Response to CMA announcement
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We note the CMA's announcement today that it will be consulting with a view to launching a full investigation into the UK vet sector, noting 5 areas of potential concern. While we are disappointed that the CMA fails to fully acknowledge the differences our differentiated model brings to our practice owners and consumers, we will continue to cooperate as they conduct their consultation up until 11 April 2024.
As outlined at our interim results in November 2023, we note that:
| • | All of our c450 practices carry clear national branding and we welcome the CMA's acknowledgment of this. |
| • | Our independent practice owners operate with complete clinical autonomy and set pricing at a local level. Our support frees them to deliver the best clinical outcomes for pets, something they excel at, resulting in us being the most trusted UK vet care brand by pet owners. |
| • | We have no exposure to other verticals within the UK vet industry, having sold our specialist referral division in 2021. Where work is referred out by our vet partners, it is done so with complete freedom based on delivering the best clinical outcomes and with complete transparency for our clients. |
| • | Our growth strategy is pro-competitive, introducing new competition and consumer choice into the UK vet sector. Our new practices will bring new capacity to many local areas that don't currently offer our services, our advanced capabilities introduce new competition for procedures that might otherwise be referred to external hospitals and we are looking to roll out 24-hour care to new catchments. |
We expect no impact on our growth strategy or ambitions where the strength of our consumer proposition is demonstrated by the high-quality growth the business is seeing.
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