Watchdog was barking up the right tree when it decided to look into the veterinary industry

Poor Tiddles and Fido are too often getting a bad deal - or, rather, their owners are - from the large corporates that dominate the veterinary business these days.

- Nils Pratley

That is the conclusion of the Competition and Markets Authority, which was barking up the right tree when it decided 18 months ago to look at a sector that can take an opaque approach to pricing its goods and services. Prices rose far faster than general inflation between 2016 and 2023, says the watchdog. The increases cannot be justified - at least nothing like fully - by investment in better kit or superior services or higher salaries. And, critically, there is a big difference between the prices charged by the large chains and the independents that before 2013 used to represent the bulk of the industry.

The CMA found the average price charged by a practice owned by a large vet group for consultation, treatment and medicines was 16.6% higher than at an independent vet.

That statistic contributes, says the CMA, to a “customer detriment” - which can be regarded as excess profits - of more than £1bn over five years.