Pet owner guide
Who owns your vet? A guide to UK corporate ownership
Of the 5,801 UK first-opinion practices we've audited and classified, ownership splits almost exactly in half — 49.2% independent and 50.8% part of a larger corporate group. Six groups account for 99.3% of every corporate branch in the country, and in most cases the branch still trades under its original local name. Search your vet below to see who really owns it.
National snapshot
Why corporate ownership matters
Independent vs corporate is one of the questions we're asked most often. The practical difference isn't clinical — every UK vet works to the same RCVS standards regardless of who signs the payslips — but it does affect how prices are set, whether medicines and diagnostics are handled in-house or through a group supply chain, and whether the practice reports up to a listed plc, a private-equity backer, or the individual partners on the door.
The Competition and Markets Authority is currently conducting a formal market investigation into UK vet services after finding that consolidation, opaque pricing and referral practices may be limiting consumer choice. The ownership of your local branch is central to that debate — and unless you check, you may not know that the practice you've used for years is now part of a national group.
Since 2013 the UK first-opinion market has moved from roughly 10% corporate to almost half. Consolidation has been fastest in cities and commuter belts — you'll still find far more independents trading in rural counties than inside the M25.
The six biggest UK vet groups at a glance
Live data from our directory. Median prices use a trimmed sample (min and max removed where we have five or more prices) so a single outlier can't skew the group figure.
| Group | Branches | Top region | Consultation | Dog booster | Microchip | Profile |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| IVC Evidensia | 982 | Other | £66.00 | £81.50 | £40.00 | View → |
| CVS Group | 491 | South East | £65.00 | £84.00 | £22.00 | View → |
| Pets at Home Vet Group | 453 | Other | £55.00 | £66.25 | £30.00 | View → |
| VetPartners | 433 | Other | £58.50 | £66.00 | £30.00 | View → |
| Medivet | 354 | South East | £59.00 | £69.00 | £15.50 | View → |
| Linnaeus | 213 | East of England | £58.00 | £72.50 | £25.00 | View → |
| Independent practices | 2,854 | Other | £55.00 | £61.00 | £25.00 | Benchmark |
Price benchmarks by group
Median published prices for each of the six groups plus an independents benchmark. Each card compares one service — the longest bar is the most expensive, the shortest the cheapest. Compare the same metric across counties on our live county pricing map.
Consultation
Median £55–£66- IVC Evidensia
£66.00
- CVS Group
£65.00
- Medivet
£59.00
- VetPartners
£58.50
- Linnaeus
£58.00
- Pets at Home Vet Group
£55.00
- Independent practices
£55.00
cheapest · most expensive
Dog annual booster
Median £61–£84- CVS Group
£84.00
- IVC Evidensia
£81.50
- Linnaeus
£72.50
- Medivet
£69.00
- Pets at Home Vet Group
£66.25
- VetPartners
£66.00
- Independent practices
£61.00
cheapest · most expensive
Cat annual booster
Median £64–£84- CVS Group
£84.00
- IVC Evidensia
£83.00
- Linnaeus
£72.50
- Medivet
£71.00
- VetPartners
£70.00
- Pets at Home Vet Group
£69.00
- Independent practices
£64.00
cheapest · most expensive
Microchip
Median £16–£40- IVC Evidensia
£40.00
- Pets at Home Vet Group
£30.00
- VetPartners
£30.00
- Linnaeus
£25.00
- Independent practices
£25.00
- CVS Group
£22.00
- Medivet
£15.50
cheapest · most expensive
Dog castration
Median £233–£352- IVC Evidensia
£352.00
- VetPartners
£270.96
- Pets at Home Vet Group
£250.00
- Independent practices
£244.66
- CVS Group
£243.00
- Linnaeus
£239.00
- Medivet
£233.00
cheapest · most expensive
Cat spay
Median £133–£177- IVC Evidensia
£177.00
- CVS Group
£158.00
- VetPartners
£150.00
- Linnaeus
£145.00
- Pets at Home Vet Group
£140.50
- Independent practices
£135.00
- Medivet
£133.00
cheapest · most expensive
What the numbers actually mean
Headline consultation fees are remarkably close across the six groups — most sit within a couple of pounds of each other and of the independent benchmark. That's the price shoppers usually compare, and it's the one the CMA has said is opaque but not wildly divergent.
The bigger gaps are on annual boosters, kennel cough vaccines and routine neutering — services where medicine costs, protocol length and up-sell of add-ons vary between groups. Independents tend to sit lower on boosters; corporate branches tend to bundle more into the visit. Neither is automatically better value: a slightly higher fee that includes a full nurse consult and a year of flea cover can beat a cheaper headline price that doesn't.
If price matters, don't stop at the consultation fee. Ask what the annual vaccination package includes, whether kennel cough is extra, and what the practice charges for a repeat prescription — the CMA's 2026 reforms cap that at £21, but not every branch has updated its published price list yet.
Where each group is strongest
Corporate footprints are far from evenly distributed. Medivet is heavily London and South East, VetPartners leans northern, and Pets at Home follows the retail estate.
IVC Evidensia
982 branchesStrongest in Other
- Hampshire43
- Lancashire35
- West Midlands34
CVS Group
491 branchesStrongest in South East
- Devon41
- Hampshire34
- Lancashire22
Pets at Home Vet Group
453 branchesStrongest in Other
- Lancashire28
- Essex22
- Kent19
VetPartners
433 branchesStrongest in Other
- Cheshire30
- Lancashire22
- London22
Medivet
354 branchesStrongest in South East
- London48
- Kent22
- Surrey20
Linnaeus
213 branchesStrongest in East of England
- London20
- Essex15
- West Yorkshire15
Full ownership profiles
Each hub page below has the parent company, head office, UK footprint, regional spread and a sample of published prices drawn from the branches we index.
Medivet
One of the UK's largest veterinary groups, with 350+ branches concentrated in London and the South East.
Read the Medivet profileIVC Evidensia
The largest veterinary group in Europe and the biggest in the UK, operating 900+ British sites.
Read the IVC Evidensia profileCVS Group
The only publicly-listed UK veterinary group, running 500+ small-animal, farm and equine practices.
Read the CVS Group profileVetPartners
A York-headquartered group of 430+ UK practices, structured around retaining each practice's local brand and clinical leadership.
Read the VetPartners profilePets at Home Vet Group
In-store and standalone practices under the Companion Care and Vets4Pets brands, part of listed retailer Pets at Home.
Read the Pets at Home Vet Group profileLinnaeus
A Mars Petcare-owned group of 200+ UK first-opinion practices and referral hospitals, including many long-established local brands.
Read the Linnaeus profileHow to check who owns any UK vet
Every practice page on this site lists the corporate group where we've been able to verify it, and every practice profile also has an ownership FAQ explaining whether that branch is independent or part of a wider network. Prefer to browse? Start with our county directory or the live county pricing map. For deeper reading, our independent vs corporate chains explainer and CMA vet-sector investigation summary put the ownership picture in its regulatory context.