Getting to be a crowded market however with respect Greencross...

Getting to be a crowded market however with respect Greencross seems to be the only entity with scale.

If your seeing a trend here stop me now.

The issue is scale. Greencross has scale. and it seems to have a veterinary focus. I can't really comment on the retail side as I frankly have not spent much time trying to understand it.

I am struggling to see how ex managers of Greencross who have managed between themselves to buy one veterinary practice can effectively roll in and manage a consolidated group. By the time they have rolled this together how on earth can they retain control and how do they monetise. The only way is for it to be heavily optioned.

I am also keen to see how they offset the management overhead and listing overheads into a fairly constrained profit model. Vets by the way generally produce between 10 and 15% Ebit to turnover. An exceptional practice can hit 20% but they are very rare.

I also question the quality of the offering. It is interesting that Steenackers the MD has said that they will train up their vets and not refer out to specialists outside their group. I do wonder then if this is all about scraping as much money off the table . I would also not really want my dog cared for by vets who are just trying brain surgery because its fun.

If you look at some of the other retail big box offering I would make the same claim. Quality ? and external management effectively making veterinary care decisions.

This goes to the core of the concern of the Veterinary Profession with market aggregation. Non vets making decisions regarding the welfare and clinical service putting profit before practice.

So Invest away but where would you take your dog ?.