Four things independent veterinary practices are telling us right now

What 700 practice owners shared about running a clinic — and what it means moving through 2026.

What came back wasn’t a story of crisis. It was a story of a sector under real pressure — and meeting that pressure with resolve and a clear sense of what matters most.

Corporate consolidation is advancing. Costs are up. Workforce wellbeing has become a newly recognised priority. Despite all of it, 84% of practice owners are still choosing independence — not because they have no other option, but because it means something to them.

Here are the four findings that stood out most.

Finding 01

Client loyalty has become the defining competitive priority.

When we asked practice owners which trends they care most about, the answer was clear: keeping clients engaged and loyal came first — cited more often than AI, preventive care, technology, or any clinical priority.

That might seem surprising. But it makes sense when you consider what has shifted.

Given the current economic climate, pet owners are certainly more cost-conscious than they were two years ago. They have more options available to them from a product, services and information point of view. They’re quicker to ask questions about value before committing to treatment. In that environment, the individual client relationship — the continuity, the local knowledge, the personal investment that defines independent practice at its best — has become the primary competitive asset.

Corporates can match or exceed independents on equipment and standardised protocols. What is harder to standardise across a large network is the depth of that individual client relationship. Independent practice owners know this. And increasingly, they’re building their strategy around it.

The implication is significant: client communication is no longer just an operational function. It’s a strategic one. The practices that protect and deepen client relationships intentionally — not just through good care, but through consistent, clear communication of value — are the ones that hold their competitive ground.

Finding 02

Most practices are financially stable. But stable and comfortable are not the same thing.

Taken at face value, the financial picture looks relatively healthy: the majority of responding practice owners describe their finances as stable or very strong. Only a small proportion say they are struggling.

But the headline figure hides something important. For independent veterinary practices — particularly in Australia — costs have been rising faster than revenue for several years. There is often no insurer buffer, no government reimbursement, no bulk purchasing scheme absorbing the impact. When input costs go up, the hit lands directly on clinic margins or on the client bill. And that pressure doesn’t ease on its own.

In our research, more than half of respondents reported that challenges had gotten somewhat or significantly worse over the past year. Only 12% said things had improved.

The practices navigating this most confidently are not waiting for conditions to ease. The most common responses to financial pressure over the past year were investing in new equipment and raising prices strategically — each cited by 46% of clinic owners. Together, they describe a deliberate quality-focused strategy: strengthen the clinical offering, then reprice to reflect the value delivered.

The gap between stable and genuinely strong tends to come down to one thing: whether a practice is managing its position deliberately, or responding to pressure when it spikes.

Finding 03

The workforce conversation has shifted — from recruitment to wellbeing.

For years, the defining workforce challenge in veterinary practice was finding qualified people. Filling rosters. Keeping up with demand.

That is still a pressure. But something has changed.

In our research, work-life balance and staff wellbeing ranked as a top workforce priority for the first time — outranking finding and keeping staff as the primary concern. Practice owners are increasingly focused on building environments where the people they have can genuinely thrive.

That shift requires a different response. Hiring pipelines now seem to matter less than working environments. The practices that retain great people over the next decade will be those that have invested in culture, workload management, tools, and genuine team support — not only those that offered the best starting salary.

This is an area where the independent model holds real advantages: flexibility, personal ownership culture, the ability to make decisions about how the practice runs without a corporate directive. These are things a well-run independent clinic can offer that standardised group practices cannot easily replicate.

The practices investing in their working environments now are building a retention advantage of staff that will compound over time. It won’t show immediately on the P&L. But it will separate thriving practices from stretched ones in the years ahead.

Finding 04

Independence is a deliberate choice — and it is holding.

Corporate consolidation is the structural backdrop to everything else in this survey. Private equity investment in veterinary medicine has grown from virtually zero in 2005 to billions annually by the early 2020s. The pressure is real and visible.

But independent practice owners are answering that pressure with unusual clarity.

84% plan to remain independent — not because they have no other option, but because independence is the point. A model of veterinary practice built on the freedom to practice medicine on their own terms, deep local relationships, and genuine personal investment in their community.

And they are backing that commitment with action. When we look at how practice owners responded to financial and market pressure over the past year, the standout finding is this: they invested and adapted. They didn’t pull back. Independent practices are not waiting to see how things play out. They are acting.

What the data also makes clear is that the nature of independence is changing. The solo clinic operating without external support, peer connection, or shared infrastructure is becoming less viable — not because independence is under threat, but because the complexity of running a competitive, well-staffed, technology-enabled practice has outgrown what any single owner can manage alone.

The future of independent veterinary practice is networked independence: clinics that retain their autonomy while accessing the collective resources that make it sustainable.

What this means

The picture that emerges from 700 independent practice owners is not one of a sector in crisis. It is a sector navigating real pressure — and doing so with conviction, investment, and a clear sense of what matters most.

Client relationships. Commercial resilience. Team sustainability. And the determination to stay independent on their own terms.

These are the practical priorities shaping how independent practices are running right now — and where they are choosing to invest for the years ahead.

About this research

This article draws on findings from VetFamily’s 2025 member survey — responses from 700 independent veterinary practice owners. The survey covered financial health, operational challenges, investment priorities, workforce trends, and perspectives on independence and industry direction.

VetFamily works exclusively with independent veterinary practices across Australia — providing the buying power, operational support, and peer community that make independence sustainable.

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