Village Vets, an Irish group of veterinary practices in which a London-headquartered private equity firm acquired a majority stake in late 2023, is poised for expansion, its chief executive has said, with plans to open six new clinics in the coming months and into 2025.
The group, which has acquired local operators and opened them under its own brand, operates a network of 21 sites in Dublin, Meath, Kildare, Limerick and Cork. Two more are expected to open in Raheny and Lusk in north Co Dublin later this year, its chief executive Charles Cosgrave said on Thursday, followed by another four next year.
Accounts for the company behind the group, Blackhall Facilities Management, shows revenues climbed by more than 9.7 per cent across the Village Vets network in 2023 to €19.4 million.
Operating profits of €430,500 were recorded compared with a small operating loss in 2022.
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Despite increased revenues, the operating company in the group, Blackhall Properties, posted a loss of €113,200 – down from almost €471,000 in the previous year – in 2023, due to “exceptional” items of expenditure in the year. Mr Cosgrave said exceptional costs were linked to “noncore professional fees” and also spending on additional sites.
In 2024 so far, revenues are 12-14 per cent ahead of where they were last year, he said, due to a combination of increased consumer spending on care for their pets and the maturation of the group’s investment in new sites over recent years.
“There is a constant humanisation of pets that has been ongoing for a number of years,” he said. “And Covid certainly accelerated that – where pets became more of an intrinsic part of the family – and [demand] for the humanised healthcare services or the variation of that we provide.”
Village Vets, which was founded by Charles’s father, Karl Cosgrave, in 1980, signed a deal late last year to sell a majority stake in the business to Inflexion, a London-headquartered private equity firm. Financial details of the transaction, which was approved by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission, were not disclosed but Inflexion is known to invest £10 million-£400 million in high-upside companies.
Since the acquisition, Village Vets has unveiled an equity system for owner-operators, a first in the rapidly consolidating veterinary practice market in the Republic.
It means new operators in the group are offered the chance to have some “skin in the game” while the group itself “takes care of all the back-office functions: marketing, HR, finance, payroll, ordering, all that sort of thing”, Mr Cosgrave said.
He added that the Inflexion investment had also allowed Village Vets to invest in new diagnostic tools such as a CAT scan machine, which is available at its clinic in Ashbourne, Co Meath.
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