Shares in Pets at Home Group PLC (LSE:PETS), the owner of Companion Vets Care and Vets4Pets, tumbled by more than 11% today after the UK government said it would conduct a regulatory review into veterinary care services.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said today that it has launched a probe into consolidation in the £2 billion market to discover whether vet surgeries are offering customers adequate services at fair prices.
It said the share of independent vet practices, which used to comprise a majority of the market, has fallen to just 45% of the industry by 2021, down from 89% in 2013.
The review will look at how prescription medication for pets is prescribed and sold, and how surgeries are involved in that sale of medications. Specifically, the regulator is investigating whether customers are aware that vet surgeries often operate within a network of larger companies that sell veterinary products. It will survey pet owners and practitioners in the field to discover their expectations for pricing and actual costs.
Shares in Pets at Home, which runs a network of more than 450 vet practices in the UK through its subsidiaries, dropped from 378.6p per share at the close of the market yesterday to a low of 336p per share this morning.
“There has been a lot of consolidation in the vet industry in recent years, so now is the right time to take a look at how the market is working,” said the CMA's chief executive Sarah Cardell.