Understanding Market Dynamics and Strategy in Veterinary Care
Below is an excerpt of the full interview conducted with Brett Holloway. Download the PDF now for the full article.
Key Takeaways
M&A Activity Has Cooled Since the Peaks of 2021 and H1’2022.
M&A volume peaked in 2021 into early 2022, followed by a rapid drop off in M&A activity during the second half of 2022. Approximate number of acquired clinics nationally by year:
- 2020: 1,000
- 2021: 1,500
- H1’2022: Annualized run-rate of 2,000
- 2022 full-year: 1,000
- Expectations in response to provider supply challenges
- Vet provider compensation to increase over the mid- to longer-term to attract additional veterinarians.
- Adoption of mid-levels.
- Service demand to be watched closely as a potential partial offset to provider supply shortage. Demand dropped in 2022 relative to a high watermark in 2021.
Historically Low Bar In Operations is Beginning to Rise
- Historically limited focus on integration yielded many rapidly scaled platforms plagued by cumbersome underlying infrastructure across multiple operational programs, brands, systems and cultures.
We are now seeing folks focus more on integration, and operations than they were in the past, as well as on de novo. Because while this wave of consolidation was happening, prices for individual clinics went just crazy, candidly.
