63% of group practices trade under local names

When you walk into “Riverside Veterinary Practice” or “Elm Tree Vets,” nothing on the door tells you it’s owned by a multinational corporation. No logo, no brand name, no disclosure. The practice looks and feels independent.

Rightvet checked. We matched every UK first-opinion veterinary practice to its parent group, where one exists, and compared the trading name to the parent brand. Across 2,861 practices in larger groups operated by seven major groups, 1,791 trade under names with no connection to their owner. That’s 63%.

The Big Three are almost entirely hidden

The pattern isn’t uniform. Three chains account for the overwhelming majority of hidden-brand practices, and their concealment is near-total.

IVC Evidensia, the largest veterinary group in the UK with 869 first-opinion practices, has just two that include any reference to the IVC or Evidensia name. The rest trade as “Summerhill Vets,” “Castle Vets,” “Priors Farm.” Names that sound like they’ve been there for decades, run by a local vet. Many of them were, before they were acquired.

VetPartners and CVS follow the same pattern. Between them, these three groups control 1,746 practices. Fewer than ten carry any visible link to their group owner.

At the other end of the spectrum, Goddard Veterinary Group puts its name on every practice. Pets at Home trades visibly as Vets4Pets or Companion Care. Medivet uses the Medivet name at 95% of its branches.

An independent vet is almost always nearby

Hidden branding matters because pet owners are making choices without full information. Rightvet’s proximity analysis found that 91% of hidden-brand group practices have an independent veterinary practice within 5 miles. Nearly two thirds have one within 2 miles.

Pet owners are choosing between group and independent practices, often on the same street, without knowing which is which.

Hidden brands charge more

When a hidden-brand group practice sits near an independent, the group practice charges more for a standard consultation 78% of the time. The average gap is £12.40.

The most extreme example: Parkvets in north London, an IVC Evidensia practice, charges £74 for a consultation. DNA Vetcare, an independent practice 0.57 miles away, charges £25. A £49 difference for the same appointment, at practices you could walk between in 10 minutes.

Pet owners don’t know

This isn’t just a theoretical transparency problem. A Which? survey of 2,000 pet owners in June 2023 found that 43% of those registered at group practices were either unaware of the group ownership or incorrectly identified their practice as independent.

The CMA’s provisional decision in October 2025 found that group practices charge 16.6% more on average than independents, and proposed mandatory ownership disclosure as one of 21 remedies. Under the proposed rules, every practice would be required to clearly display who owns it.