VetVantage

Five ways a veterinary practice is owned — and, separately, the four contracts a vet can be employed under. The same clinic can look identical on the door yet sit inside a completely different machine, so we keep who owns it and how you’re employed as two distinct questions.

Which ownership model suits you?

Every London practice is owned under one of five models. They differ on the things a vet actually feels day to day — how hard the financial targets are, how much autonomy you keep, what they pay, and whether you could ever own a piece of it. Each model has one colour, used across the whole site. Open a model to meet the real groups inside it, read our take, and jump straight to those practices.

PE roll-up Listed corporate Global corporate Independent Charity / non-profit
Who owns it ≠ how you’re employed. Ownership is who holds the business; your contract is the deal you personally work under — and they vary independently. A listed corporate (Pets at Home) runs its Vets4Pets sites as joint ventures where the vet part-owns the clinic; an independent might offer you a salary or a partnership. The four contract types are explained below the models.

How you’d be employed — a different question from who owns it

The model and colour above tell you who owns the business. Your contract is a separate axis — the deal under which you actually work, which the same owner can vary site by site. These are the four you’ll meet:

How we’d weigh it up

There is no “best” model — only the one that fits what you actually want. Our rough mapping, to argue with:

If you want to own one day: independents first (the only route to outright ownership and succession), then a JV / branch-partner contract (Pets at Home, or Medivet buy-ins) as the realistic corporate equity route. Everything else is salaried, however senior.
If you want to learn advanced medicine: the global corporate (Mars/Linnaeus) and the larger PE referral hospitals concentrate the most certificate- and diploma-holders to learn from.
If you want autonomy and a say in how things run: a good independent beats everything; a strong JV partner is next. The big PE groups sit at the other end.
If you want maximum pay certainty: benchmark hard everywhere — the data shows no model reliably “pays best” (London medians sit around £65k for a vet surgeon, £75k senior); it is set site by site. Benchmark an offer →
If you want purpose over return: charity / non-profit offers caseload and mission the commercial sector cannot, with a different pay structure.
If you value transparency before you join: the listed corporates (CVS, Pets at Home) publish their accounts and strategy; the PE groups do not.
Our read: the quiet truth across every model is that the consolidators need a steady supply of clinics to keep growing, and retiring independent owners are the supply. If ownership appeals to you at all, the most valuable move is simply to be in that conversation early — before a group is the only buyer in the room.
Now find the practice you want.
You know the models and what each means for your pay, autonomy and any route to owning. Take that lens into every London site — sortable, filterable, with the full story behind each one.
Explore the practices →
Aggregate stats are computed from the practices in VetVantage’s Greater London dataset. Pay figures are medians from live Vet Times adverts (June 2026). Group reputation reflects staff reviews (Glassdoor / Indeed / Breakroom) and Vet Times, 2025–26, and is indicative of the group, not any single site. Passages marked “Our read” are VetVantage’s interpretation, not statements of fact. VetVantage is non-commercial and educational; it accuses no one of wrongdoing. None of this is financial or legal advice.