Vets Now surgeries in line to surpass £2m in profits

RICHARD Dixon, the entrepreneur behind emergency pet care business Vets Now, hopes to break the £2 million profits barrier this year as he eyes further growth.

Dixon set up the chain of out-of-hours emergency veterinary surgeries in 2001, but 18 months ago opened a referral centre in Glasgow which offers services such as orthopedics for animals.

The Dunfermline-headquartered company also acquired an existing referral business in Swindon earlier this year as Dixon, who is himself a qualified vet, looks to diversify the company.

It started with just one centre in Glasgow, but Vets Now has grown to 50 out-of-hours emergency centres across the UK, which act as accident and emergency units for animals.

Earnings before interest, taxes and depreciation (Ebitda) in the year to the end of March reached about 1.8m, up from 1.3m the year before.

But Dixon expects profits to break 2m in the current financial year on turnover of 27m-28m.

Although Dixon will continue to open emergency centres, he sees the referral centres as a greater source of future growth.

He said he will consider starting new centres from scratch as well as further acquisitions.

"A bigger area of growth will be the referral sites," he said.

"We will continue to open emergency centres but we are already in a lot of the bigger conurbations."

Vets Now employs 500 staff across the UK.