The biggest veterinary groups in the UK, 2026
The UK's biggest veterinary practice groups ranked by the turnover in their own filed accounts. Five private-equity and corporate giants own almost the entire corporate market — the subject of a 2024 competition investigation — and the table shows just how concentrated, and how invisible the surviving independents are, in the real numbers.
What the filings show
Almost nobody's local vet is independent any more. Five private-equity and corporate groups — IVC Evidensia (EQT), VetPartners (BC Partners), CVS Group (listed), Linnaeus (Mars) and Medivet (CVC) — bill £3.48B between them, 95% of every group on this list. Then the table falls off a cliff: from Medivet at £340M straight down to the biggest independent at a fraction of it. Few consumer industries in Britain have been rolled up this completely, this quietly.
That concentration is why the Competition and Markets Authority opened a formal investigation into the sector in 2024, after finding that pet owners often weren't told their neighbourhood practice was part of a national chain, and that prices had risen faster than the corporate groups' costs. The numbers here are the supply side of that inquiry: the revenue these five groups have assembled, one independent practice at a time.
The independents that remain are the exceptions that prove it — DNA Vetcare, employee-owned Pennard, the not-for-profit Animal Trust, Bristol's university teaching hospital. They're growing fast off small bases (DNA Vetcare (+29%), Animal Trust (+21%), The Ralph (+14%), Pennard Vets (+13%)), but the more telling fact is how few of them file a turnover at all: the thousands of surviving single-practice vets are, in the accounts, invisible. The corporate roll-up didn't just consolidate the market — it consolidated who can even be counted.
Top UK veterinary groups by filed turnover
Latest accounts filed as of June 2026 · refreshed monthly
| # | Firm | Turnover | YoY | Staff | Accounts |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01 | IVC Evidensia National veterinary care provider Inspiring Vet Care Ltd — the UK operating company of IVC Evidensia, the EQT-owned group; Europe’s largest vet group. | £1.18B | +3% | 14,711 | FY to Sept 2024 |
| 02 | VetPartners PE-backed veterinary practice group VetPartners Group Ltd, consolidated — BC Partners-owned. | £870M | +2% | 12,137 | FY to Jun 2025 |
| 03 | CVS Group Listed veterinary services provider CVS Group plc — the only UK vet consolidator listed on the stock market (AIM). | £673M | +5% | 24,476 | FY to Jun 2025 |
| 04 | Linnaeus Mars-backed veterinary practice group Linnaeus Veterinary Ltd — owned by Mars (alongside its pet-food and Banfield businesses). | £419M | +5% | 6,373 | FY to Dec 2024 |
| 05 | Medivet Private equity-backed veterinary group Medivet Group Ltd — CVC Capital Partners-owned. | £340M | -4% | 3,569 | FY to Apr 2025 |
| 06 | DNA Vetcare independent Independent veterinary surgery operator One of the larger remaining independently-owned small-animal groups. | £50M | +29% | 569 | FY to Jul 2025 |
| 07 | Animal Trust not-for-profit Not-for-profit veterinary clinic operator Animal Trust Vets CIC — a not-for-profit chain offering lower-cost care. | £27M | +21% | 330 | FY to Jun 2025 |
| 08 | Langford Vets university University-owned veterinary teaching practice The University of Bristol’s veterinary teaching hospital and practices. | £23M | +5% | 323 | FY to Jul 2025 |
| 09 | VetCT telemedicine Veterinary specialist services provider Veterinary specialist telemedicine and second-opinion services. | £21M | -3% | 144 | FY to Dec 2024 |
| 10 | The Ralph specialist referral Veterinary referral hospital operator The Ralph Veterinary Referral Centre plc — advanced/referral care. | £19M | +14% | 247 | FY to Mar 2025 |
| 11 | Premier Vet Group buying group Veterinary administrative services provider Premier Veterinary Group plc — a practice buying and services group. | £17M | +2% | 67 | FY to Sept 2025 |
| 12 | Synergy Farm Health farm & equine Independent farm animal veterinary practice Large-animal and farm veterinary practice. | £19M | — | 141 | 18-mo period to Apr 2025 |
The next 2
Firms ranked 13–14
| 13 | The George Group independent | £13M | +3% | FY to Jun 2025 |
| 14 | Pennard Vets independent (employee-owned) | £12M | +13% | FY to May 2025 |
The firms we can't rank
The missing vet names are PE-owned chains that file audit-exempt, and the thousands of independents that file no turnover at all.
- Pets at Home Vet Group — the vet arm files audit-exempt within Pets at Home Group plc; its ~£150M of joint-venture practice income isn’t separately disclosed as turnover
- Goddard Veterinary Group — files audit-exempt accounts with no disclosed turnover
- Vets4Pets / Companion Care — a Pets at Home joint-venture network whose UK entities file dormant or audit-exempt
- Independent single practices — most file small-company accounts with no turnover line; the corporate roll-up is precisely what makes the big groups visible and the independents invisible
How this list is built
Source. The latest annual accounts each firm filed at Companies House. Where a firm files consolidated group accounts, the group figure is used; the entity ranked is named under each firm. Where a firm filed a transition period longer or shorter than twelve months (flagged in the Accounts column), the table shows the filed figure but the firm is ranked on its annualised equivalent.
Who counts as a veterinary group. Operators of veterinary practices — small-animal, farm, equine and referral — ranked by filed turnover and tagged by owner type. We exclude animal-health manufacturers, diagnostics labs (IDEXX, Antech) and veterinary wholesalers (Centaur), whose turnover is products, not vet fees.
Scope. The corporate groups mostly trade through audit-exempt operating subsidiaries with the consolidated turnover in a group entity — that group entity is ranked, the subsidiaries excluded. IVC Evidensia is ranked on its UK operating company (Inspiring Vet Care) because the group sits offshore. Pets at Home's vet arm, Goddard and Vets4Pets file audit-exempt with no disclosed turnover and are named in the firms we can't rank.
Cadence. Rebuilt monthly as new accounts land. Spot a vet group we've missed or misread? Tell us — the methodology only works if it's challenged.
Quick answers
- Who owns the UK's biggest vet groups?
- Private equity and corporates, almost entirely. IVC Evidensia is owned by EQT, VetPartners by BC Partners, Medivet by CVC, and Linnaeus by Mars; only CVS Group is publicly listed. Between them these five own thousands of formerly-independent practices — which is exactly why the Competition and Markets Authority opened an investigation into the sector in 2024.
- How concentrated is the market really?
- Extremely. The five corporate groups bill £3.48B between them — 95% of every group on this list — and there's a cliff straight down to the largest independent at £50M. The corporate roll-up of British vet care is one of the most complete in any consumer industry.
- Why are so few independent vets on the list?
- Not because they don't exist — there are thousands — but because most file small-company accounts with no turnover line. The corporate consolidators have to file full or group accounts, which makes them visible; the surviving independents are, by the nature of their filings, almost invisible. That asymmetry is itself part of the story.
- Is 'Inspiring Vet Care' really IVC Evidensia?
- Yes — Inspiring Vet Care Limited is the UK operating company of IVC Evidensia, Europe's largest veterinary group. The name is the giveaway: IVC. We rank it because the group's holding companies sit offshore and don't file comparable UK accounts.