Andy Tolkien Marketing Administrator

Large Animal & Equine Competitor Analysis Andy Tolkien Marketing Administrator

Table of Contents INTRODUCTION 3 INDEPENDENT VETCARE CURRENT POSITION 3 KEY COMPETITION CURRENT POSITION 3 CVS 4 XL VETS 4 OTHER COMPETITORS 4 FARM ANIMAL SUMMARY 5 EQUINE SUMMARY 6 SECTION SUMMARY 6 FARM ANIMAL REVIEW 7 CVS 7 XL VETS 8 EQUINE REVIEW 9 CVS 9 XL VETS 10 MAGAZINE REVIEW 11 EVENTS 19 SUPPLIER CAMPAIGNS 19 MSD 19 BOEHRINGER INGELHEIM 20 DIGITAL TECHNIQUES 20 NEW HOLLAND AGRICULTURE 21 STOCKMOVE EXPRESS 21 NADIS VET 21 TRACK MY HACK 21 OS MAPFINDER 22 STABLE MATE 22 REFERENCES 23 2

Introduction The purpose of this report is to identify and analyse the key competitors that Independent Vetcare face within both the Farm Animal and Equine sectors of the UK veterinary market, and to evaluate the methods in which Independent Vetcare can surpass them in this market. The report will look at IVC s current position in the farm animal and equine sectors and compare this to its two key competitors, CVS and XL Vets. This will then be followed by a look into the major industry publications in that can influence both veterinary care professionals and the owners of animals in these sectors. Independent Vetcare Current Position As of the time of writing Independent Vetcare have a more than 500 practices across the UK, however many of these specialise exclusively in small animal care. Out of the 500 plus practices, IVC possess 73 practices that care for farm animals across 32 groups and 71 practices that cater for Equine, across 33 groups. These practices largely consist of mixed practices rather than specialist practices, and they provide different kinds of care. Of 73 practices that provide farm animal care, only 42 have on site capabilities with the other 31 practices purely providing farm visit care. This is a similar story with the equine care as only 42 of the 71 equine practices providing on site care with the other 29 sites providing ambulatory care only. The overwhelming proportion of IVC s Farm and Equine practices are in mixed practices, with only 1 equine only practice and no farm only practices on their roster. Independent Vetcare have managed to establish themselves as the largest providers of veterinary care in The UK by building brands based largely around the most commonly thought about area of veterinary medicine, small animal. Brands such as The Pet Health Club, and My Family Vets have become widely recognisable brands within The UK veterinary market and are a way of providing nationwide marketing for practices without using the IVC name and diminishing the independent nature of practices in the client s eyes. However, one IVC brand that has made less of an impression is The Healthy Horse Club Key Competition Current Position To conduct a review of a company s activity in a relevant market a review of their current position within this market must be applied. Therefore, a brief analysis of both CVS and XL Vets is displayed below. 3

CVS CVS is IVC s closest competitor in The UK in terms of number of practices, within over 450 spread across The UK and the Netherlands. However, much like IVC, the vast majority of practices owned are based around small animal care with only 18 providers of farm animal (CVS, 2018). However, they have got a larger number of equine providing practices, 30 in total, mostly based out of mixed practices that provide ambulatory care (CVS, 2018). This follows the general trend within The UK veterinary market as the focus of veterinary care has moved toward small and companion animals, with the provision of rural farm animal veterinary services now considered to be in decline (Lowe, 2009). In The UK there are only 25 RCVS accredited equine hospitals, and CVS proudly present that they are the owners of four of these 25 practices. They also own Bell Equine which seems to have garnered a reputation as one of the best equine facilities in the country over the last few years and will be seen by CVS as something of a coup. Similarly to IVC, CVS have an equine preventative health care plan, called the Horse Health Programme, however with only 6 practices that can make use of this programme, it is underutilised at best (Horse Health Programme, 2018). XL Vets XL Vets has a different story of origin to that of CVS as they began, as the name suggests, with a focus on Farm Veterinary care and since then have moved into Equine and some small animal focused care (XL Vets, 2018a). Amongst their roster, XL Vets now have 51 practices that provide farm animal care and 39 practices that provide equine care, making them the largest providers of equine care in The UK. Of these 39 equine practices, 8 are dedicated solely to equine care, five cater to just farm animal and equine care, with the rest being general mixed practices. In terms of the 51 practices that provide farm animal care, XL Vets have 10 practices that are dedicated solely to providing farm animal treatment, and as mentioned before 5 which cater to farm animal and equine, with the rest being general mixed practices. Unlike, both IVC and CVS, XL Vets do not currently have a preventative health plan in place across their practices, however, they are in the process of developing one that will be used across all of its member practices, small animal, farm animal and equine (XL Vets, 2018b). This is unique across the three companies in focus as neither of the other two groups have a plan for farm animal care as it is not often something considered relevant for the commercialised nature of the farming business. Other Competitors The first of the other competitors are Linnaeus, a smaller buying group based in Solihull. As it stands Linnaeus have 51 practices across The UK, which are mainly 4

small animal and referral specialists. However, Linnaeus have one dedicated Equine practice and also have 2 practices that will cover all small animal, farm animal, and equine needs (Linnaeus, 2018). This suggests that Linnaeus don t currently have a particular focus on farm animal and equine care as even the equine specialised centre is linked to a small animal practice under one group name. Vet Partners are an even smaller group than Linnaeus, and they have control over 15 practices across The UK. However, Vet Partners do not currently have any practices that cater for farm animal or equine care, suggesting that this isn t something on their radar as of yet. The closest thing that they have to farm animal care is that they have one practice that is a registered Chicken Vet accredited practice (Vet Partners, 2018). Farm Animal Summary From the data gathered above, we can start to put together a picture of farm animal care market between the veterinary groups in this report. With this in mind, IVC currently have 73 practices that provide some level of farm animal care, which represents 51% of the practices across these four groups. This shows that IVC already have power in the farm animal market. However, IVC do not possess any farm animal only vet practices and many of the mixed practices that provide farm animal care may only see a very small number of farm animals each year. This contrasts to XL Vets 51 practices, of which ten cater solely for farm animals and five for just farm and equine. These practices are likely to cater to a far higher number of farm animals than the majority of IVC practices as that is the bread and butter of what they do. Overall, it seems that IVC have moved far ahead of CVS and Linnaeus in terms of farm animal care, but it is still questionable whether IVC have as much influence on the farm animal market as XL Vets despite the greater number of farm practices IVC Possess. 5

Equine Summary IVC possess a very similar number of equine practices as farm animal practices, largely because most of the providers of this kind of care in IVC are mixed practices that cater for all animals. Overall IVC have 71 practices that cater for some type of equine care, which represents 51% of all the equine practices across the four major groups that provide equine care in The UK. However, despite this large number IVC contain just one practice that is specialised in solely equine care, Kessock Equine. This contrasts to CVS who have six equine specialist practices of their 30 total providers and XL Vets who have 10 specialist providers of the 39 total providers. This also means that IVC have the same number of specialist equine only practices as Linnaeus, who only have three total practices that provide equine care. Section Summary Overall, it seems that IVC have gathered a large number of farm animal and equine providing mixed practices while acquiring the small animal practices that have up until now provided the bulk of IVC s growth. However, despite dominating the market in terms of sheer numbers, it could be argued that IVC lag behind XL Vets in specialised farm and equine care, who appear to have targeted more specialised providers care. 6

Farm Animal Review This section of the report will look at how the two rival companies of IVC act within the farm animal market, how they attract practices to their respective groups and how they advertise themselves in the industry media. CVS Firstly, we must look at how CVS attempt to present themselves to the outside world, the best way to do this is by looking at the ideals they present on their website. CVS highlight 5 reasons why practices should be persuaded to join them, as shown below All key clinical decisions at group level are made by vets. CVS practices retain their unique identity and trade under established names. Freedom for practice owners to concentrate on client care and clinical excellence. Practices benefit from CVS Group specialist expertise: Unprecedented learning and development opportunities for staff. (CVS, 2018b) These reasons are somewhat generic in the industry, and both IVC and XL Vets present similar values on their websites. However, IVC go beyond the generic values presented by CVS, as they also state that they promise genuine investment in member practices and that they also have a strong belief in people (IVC, 2018a). These extra values, and a tendency to follow through on all promises has lead to a more favourable reputation in the industry. It seems that within this respect alone that CVS do not have a USP over IVC, however, this could change in the coming months. In September 2017, CVS appointed a new director of CVS Farm, and he has already begun frameworks for big changes in the way CVS operate in this market. CVS themselves say that James Kennedy, Director of CVS Farm, will be responsible for building the company s reputation in the farm veterinary sector (CVS, 2018c). Kennedy has already stated that he intends to create bespoke farm New Graduate Programme for young vets which all our farm practices will be able to access (CVS, 2018c). This change comes as currently all CPD that CVS vets/nurses attend is external, and although CVS provide allowances for this, the new graduate programme would be a vast improvement. This specific farm vet graduate academy is something that IVC do not currently have and could be classed as a USP over IVC when it comes to fruition. A real short falling so far for CVS is that they don t appear to have any real presence in industry media related to farm animal care. At the time of writing, CVS had no direct adverts, press releases, or featured articles from thought leaders in the last 4 editions of any of the farm animal magazines studied. The solitary piece of advertising was an advert posted on the Vet Times website for 7

one of their clinics, and another for a graduate programme at CVS (Vet Times Jobs, 2018). However, James Kennedy has already led growth in this sector and raised CVS s profile, and is looking on course to continue this in the future, so it is vital for IVC to respond to the moves CVS make in the coming months and attempt to remain one step ahead. XL Vets XL Vets are a step ahead of CVS vets with regards to farm animal care; this is due to the fact that the businesses foundations are rooted in farm animal and farm work. This has led them to being one of the most well regarded providers of farm animal care in The UK. So what do XL Vets offer that other companies don t? Like IVC and CVS, XL Vets have their own set of guidelines as to why practices should sell to the company. XL Vets have 5 key sections of benefits that they say they can provide to a prospective seller. These are based in providing clinical excellence, support for its people, growth of the sellers business, promises of increased efficiency and expertise in communication and branding (XL Vets, 2018c) These are again fairly similar to the promises outlined by IVC and CVS, however it could be said that XL Vets may be able to deliver on these promises in a way that the aforementioned companies couldn t due to the increased experience XL Vets have within the farm animal field. XL Vets do also offer something unique in that they make the statement that each member practice owns one share and elects a board of directors (XL Vets, 2018e). This promise ensures that all member practices feel as though they have a say in how the practice is run going forward after the purchase and could be a strong incentive to potential sellers. XL Vets clearly have a USP in their experience in the farm animal market, and there share scheme, but how have they built this experience and increased their market share? Firstly, under the pseudonym VetSkills, XL Vets have an extensive CPD network that improves vets and nurses clinical skills and their personal skills. These courses range from helping clinicians deal with difficult conversations to helping diagnose lameness in farm animals and understanding dairy genetics (VetSkills, 2018). These courses seem to often be hosted within XL Vets practices and by XL Vets clinicians, which will increase staff members perception of the clinical excellence within the company. XL Vets have also created their own quarterly magazines for each section of the business, small animal, farm and equine (XL Vets, 2018d). These magazines, as will be reviewed later in this report, contain featured articles from XL s own vets and are free to all clients and staff of the company. The magazines are also available to non-xl members/clients through a subscription service. These magazines may not generate much revenue or many new clients, but they do build a stronger bond between client and practice, as if a client reads an article written by their vet then they are likely to hold them in high regard. 8

XL Vets are not content with just having articles in their own magazine however; they have a series of indirect feature articles in high circulation industry magazines such as Farmers Weekly (2018). Although XL Vets are not credited in these articles directly, vets that are employed by the company in practice are being presented as thought leaders to the industry, this strengthens XL Vets brand. Much like CVS, XL Vets do also advertise jobs in leading industry magazines; in a brief look adverts were found both in the Vet Times and the Vet Record (See right). This is nothing major and generally seems to be common practice in the industry, but nevertheless will still go someway to building awareness of the company with budding vets. Equine Review This section of the report will look at how the two rival companies of IVC act within the equine market, how they attract practices to their respective groups and how they advertise themselves in the industry media. CVS With only 6 equine practices in The UK, CVS are certainly looking into develop their portfolio in the future. (CVS, 2018d) In order to expand this portfolio, CVS must lure in new practices with a clear set of promises and goals. CVS have a common line in their acquisition promises, as stated before in the farm animal review. These are through highlighting the 5 reasons why a practice should join CVS, however, as stated before, these are rather generic and generalised for the industry. However, they do make some other claims based directly towards the equine market. CVS promise to provide unrivalled commitment to investment in equipment and facilities and that they have a clinician-led equine clinical advisory committee (CVS, 2018d). A specific equine clinical advisory committee could be a strong lure for equine practices, as they know that equine experts will be leading the line for clinical improvements and treatment options. However, from a purely skeptical view an unrivalled commitment to investment is not the same as unrivalled investment, and this can be seen as a vague promise that doesn t necessarily guarantee anything to practices. As we saw in the previous section of this report, CVS appointed a farm animal director to attempt to exploit that market, however, there has been no such movement from them in the equine department. This could be a sign of CVS 9

prioritizing small and farm animal care over equine for the time being, or CVS could be looking into making another new appointment to attempt to kick-start their progress in this industry too. However, that is purely guesswork at this stage. Once again with the equine department, all CPD in the company appears to be provided by external sources, and unlike in the farm animal department there doesn t seem to currently be a plan to alter this. This is a short falling for CVS as clinicians may wonder if there is a lack of clinical excellence in the company if CPD cannot be run by CVS practitioners within CVS facilities. With regards to industry publications, once again CVS are virtually non-existent in recent editions. With the exception of a couple of adverts in the Vet Times, there is no real presence in the media by CVS or CVS equine vets. XL Vets With 39 Equine practices, XL Vets are the leading providers of equine care in The UK. However, their promises to prospective practice sellers do not differ from the ones presented to practices specialising in farm animal care. These are based in providing clinical excellence, support for its people, growth of the sellers business, promises of increased efficiency and expertise in communication and branding (XL Vets, 2018c). This does make some sense as the somewhat generalised nature of these promises do apply to both farm animal and equine clinics, and they are also clearly working relatively well judging by the number of equine clinics that the possess. XL Vets do offer something very unique to their clients however, in the shape of EquineSkills. EquineSkills is a series of workshops and practical training provided to clients to improve their own care, understanding and love for their horses (EquineSkills, 2018). Although these courses are not free and bring in revenue to XL Vets, they are also a brilliant way to bond clients to XL Vets for the duration of their horses life. As previously stated, XL Vets also provide all clients and staff with a free quarterly magazine which contains clinical, behavioural and training information for Equine lovers (Equine Matters, 2018). As with the farm animal side of the business, XL Vets are also active in industry magazines with articles from XL Vets practitioners such as the article in Veterinary Practice magazine (Image right). This is coupled with adverts in both the Vet Times and the Vet Record, which as with the farm animal sector will help to raise awareness of the company amongst practitioners. 10

Magazine Review The following pages will contain a brief overview of some of the industries leading publications in both the farm animal market and the equine sector. Outlined will be the circulation and therefore the reach of the publication, the purpose of the publication, and its relevance to the farm animal and equine industries. 11

Frequency: Weekly First Issue Published: 1888 Audience: Veterinary practitioners, veterinary professionals 12,118 Print Circulation Vet Record is the official journal of the British Veterinary Association (BVA). Published weekly and sent to BVA members and other subscribers, it provides the evidence base for veterinary practice. Frequency: Monthly First Issue Published: 1979 Audience: Practicing Veterinary practitioners, practice managers and students In Practice is specifically geared to meeting the practice and continuing education needs of veterinary professionals and remains a constant source of reference and education complementing Vet Record perfectly 16,382 Print Circulation 12

Frequency: Monthly First Issue Published: 1968 Audience: Veterinary practitioners, veterinary professionals Thousands Print Circulation Veterinary Practice is the UK s leading monthly veterinary publication. Each month in provides in depth industry news and articles related to small animal, large animal and equine clinical research. Open to feature articles. Frequency: Weekly First Issue Published: 1934 Audience: British Farming Industry Farmers Weekly is a magazine aimed at the British farming industry. It provides news; business features; a weekly digest of facts and figures about British, European and world agriculture; and Livestock, Arable and Machinery sections with reports on technical developments, farm sales and analysis of prices. 50,426 Print Circulation 13

Frequency: Weekly First Issue Published: 1851 Audience: Veterinary Surgeons and Veterinary Nurses. 19,640 Print Circulation Vet Times is aimed at Surgeons and nurses and includes a variety of industry news, clinical research and opinion pieces, on small animal, large animal and equine. Frequency: 5 times a Year First Issue Published: N/A Audience: BHS Members, Horse riders British Horse is the official magazine of The British Horse Society. Every issue is mailed to the members of the BHS, a group that is passionate about horses and riding. Filled with Equine related news, advice and feature articles. 74,285 Print Circulation 14

Frequency: Yearly First Issue Published: 1968 Audience: BEVA members (veterinary professionals) Equine Veterinary Journal is aimed at Surgeons and members of BEVA. It contains clinical research and findings from the year. 3,000+ Print Circulation Frequency: Monthly First Issue Published: 1961 Audience: Horse riders, horse lovers Horse & Rider contains top tips and advice from leading industry experts, with up-to-date features on veterinary, riding, horse care and management. 150,000+ Print Circulation 15

Frequency: Monthly First Issue Published: 1979 Audience: Farmers and farming contactors in The UK 27,405 Print Circulation Farmers Guide is the only farming magazine that is mailed free and direct to farmers and contactors in the UK and provides free advertising to farmer readers. Frequency: Weekly First Issue Published: 1846 Audience: Farmers Farmers Guide The best-read weekly title at farms all sizes in Great Britain. It proves up to date news, features and statistics on farming in the UK. 39,549 Print Circulation 16

Frequency: Monthly First Issue Published: 1994 Audience: Dairy Farmers British Dairying A publication designed specifically for the dairy farming industry, British Dairying set out to keep dairy farmers up-to-date with the latest technical, scientific and economic news from the sector every month. 11,097 Print Circulation Frequency: Monthly First Issue Published: N/A Audience: Pig Farmers Pig World is a wholly paid-for-publication, reaching more pig producers than any other publication. The circulation of 4,100 (January 2015) includes all members of the National Pig Association (NPA), the representative body of the British Pig Industry. NPA members represent 85% of British pig production. 4,100 Print Circulation 17

Frequency: Quarterly First Issue Published: N/A Audience: XL Vets farm animal clients and staff Livestock Matters is the official magazine of XL Vets Farm. Magazine contains article on topical diseases, animal health, farm health planning, and industry news. Frequency: Quarterly First Issue Published: N/A Audience: XL Vets equine clients and staff Equine Matters is the official magazine of XL Vets Equine. Magazine contains article on topical diseases, animal health, industry news, and pony pages for younger readers. 18

Events To analyse the market and IVC s competition, this report needs to look at relevant events and conferences aimed at farmers and to some extent equine vets/lovers, and find out if any of the competition are attending these events to target potential clients and vets. One of the largest farm based conferences in The UK is the UK Dairy Expo, and for the last few years XL Vets have attended and hosted a stall at the expo. This event attracts thousands of farmers from across the country and is a fantastic event to build relationships with proactive farmers. There was no evidence that CVS had attended this event in the last few years, which follows the trend with regards to advertising and submitting feature articles in magazines. In Truth the only large scale event that CVS seem to have attended with some relevance to farm animal and equine care is London Vet Show, something which XL Vets also attend. This report looked at many examples of farm animal based events and there was very little activity from veterinary groups, and the events are more often attended by pharma companies and farm tech companies. Example of large events that were not attended by large veterinary groups are the Oxford Farming Conference, the Three Counties Farming Conference and multiple farm animal shows across the country. Supplier Campaigns For us to get a detailed picture of the market we must also look into the work that our suppliers are conducting within the farm animal and equine market. This will consist primarily of national campaigns they are running which are visible to the public and work they are currently doing with us. MSD Concerning farm animals, MSD are attempting to reach out to the public with a campaign named Keeping Britain s Youngstock Healthy, which seems to be a continuation of MSD s other campaign Keeping Britain s Horses Healthy which will be look into in the next section. MSD say that they have made it their mission to reduce the risk of illness of the 2.4 million calves born in Britain every year (MSD, 2018). MSD say that there are steps in vaccination, education and monitoring that can be taken to vastly improve the health and wellbeing of Britain s young calves (MSD, 2018). In a similar vein, the Keeping Britain s Horses Healthy campaign is based around improving preventative healthcare and reducing infectious diseases (Health Horses, 2018). The idea of the campaign is to bring together the vet, yard owner, and horse owner in unison to ensure that best practices are shared and adopted with regards to equine welfare (Healthy Horses, 2018). Unlike the MSD 19

campaign surrounding youngstock, this campaign seems to have a bigger focus from MSD as it has its own dedicated website that provides information, resources and a vet finder, so that clients can search for a vet that is on board with the campaign. These two campaigns are useful for MSD as they provide a national campaign that will raise awareness of their brand, will aid in the health and welfare of animals, and will link into the use of MSD s vaccines and drugs in the healthcare of the animals. Boehringer Ingelheim Although Boehringer do not have dedicated national campaigns in the same way that MSD do, they still have many campaigns to improve farm and equine health on a smaller or less visible scale. For example, they are running a campaign currently that in line with the UK government, is attempting to get the UK BVD free. This will of course be through improving vaccination rates, using Boehringer s vaccine, and will aid in improving farm animal health. Boehringer also say that a campaign to increase the amount of cattle on their Metacam solution, as recent research has shown that it will speed up the rate that cows with mastitis can regain their milk yield and will improve fertility of the cattle further down the line. On an equine basis, Boehringer also have a similar approach to their campaigns. For example, they run two campaigns with IVC that aim to improve equine health. The first is the equine vaccine amnesty that they run with IVC where a full vaccine is provided for unvaccinated horses for the price of a booster. The second campaign for horses that Boehringer run with IVC is the aim to reduce the impact of Cushings disease in horses. In order to do this, Boehringer will cover the cost of blood samples sent to Liphook for analysis so that more samples are sent by vets and Cushings can be identified and treated quickly. As with MSD, these campaigns do great work in attempting to improve the health and wellbeing of farm and equine animals. Although Boehringer do not necessarily promote these campaigns to the public as much, these campaigns will have a big impact on veterinary professionals and these are the people who can make judgements on which vaccines and medications to use in practice. Digital Techniques With a number of farmers in the industry falling into the lower end of the age spectrum, it could be important to look at more modern methods of marketing to them. This part of the report will look at some of the best apps available to farmers to make their life easier or to provide useful information to them. The apps that have been found are services that IVC could potentially embed into an app if that avenue were to be explored. All of the below were voted as some of the 10 best apps for farmers by Countryfile magazine (2018). 20

New Holland Agriculture New Holland Agriculture is a free weather based app that is designed and tailored specifically for agriculture and farmer. It gives detailed information on all aspects of the weather that may be applicable to farmers such as humidity, wind, and the moons positions and cycle. Stockmove Express Stockmove Express is a free app that allows farmers to register the movements of their livestock. The app is designed to save farmers time and can be used offline to record the required data and then simply synched with the NLMD-LT when back online to notify the relevant statutory body. Although the app is free to download there is extra content that can be downloaded for up to 50 per year. NADIS Vet NADIS Vet is possibly the app most applicable to IVC as it is a free app that is invaluable to anyone with livestock (Countryfile, 2018). The app is free and run by The National Animal Disease Information Service, and contains an extensive library of animal diseases, parasites, cures and prevention. The app is designed with preventative health care and early diagnosis in mind which follow the ethos of IVC s small animal preventative health care scheme The Pet Health Club. The below are some of the most used and loved apps for horse riders and horse lovers. Track My Hack Track My Hack will, as the name suggests, track and record the route of your hack, the time taken, and the average speed of travel of the hack. This data can be 21

compared to previous hack data and can be shared with family and friends. This app is free and is widely used across The UK. OS MapFinder Along a similar sort of path to Track My Hack is OS MapFinder. This is not an app specifically made for horse riders; it is the official app from Ordinance Survey. However, it gives horse riders a way of finding local bridleways and planning routes before setting out on a hack and it also contains an integrated GPS tracker, which helps to keep track of your current location while out of a hack. Stable Mate Stable mate is a free app, which helps horse lovers to organize their horses life in one handy app. It allows users to fill in all the useful information, such as their worming routine, farrier, vet and dentist visits, and any competitions planned. Up to 10 horses can be managed from the virtual stable and it even sends the user horse news if they want it. 22

References CVS (2018a) Our Business [Online] Available from: https://www.cvsukltd.co.uk/ourbusinesses/practice-division/cvs-farm/ Lowe, P. (2009). Unlocking potential A report on veterinary expertise in food animal production, published by Defra (Department for Environment and Food Rural Affairs), UK. Horse Health Programme (2018) Home [Online] Available from: https://www.horsehealthprogramme.co.uk/ XL Vets (2018a) Who we are [Online] Available from: http://www.xlvets.co.uk/whowe-are XL Vets (2018b) Working Together [Online] Available from: http://www.xlvets.co.uk/working-together CVS (2018b) Selling Your Practice [Online] Available from: https://www.cvsukltd.co.uk/joining-cvs/selling-your-practice/ IVC (2018) About US [Online] Available from: https://www.independentvetcare.co.uk/about-us CVS (2018c) New Director [Online] Available from: https://www.cvsukltd.co.uk/newdirector-cvs-farm-appointed/ Vet Times (2018) Jobs [Online] Available from: https://jobs.vettimes.co.uk/jobs/surgeon/large-farm-animal/#browsing XL Vets (2018c) Brochure [Online] Available from: http://editions.xlvets.co.uk/xlvetsbrochure/files/assets/basic-html/page-3.html XL Vets (2018d) Livestock matters [Online] Available from: http://www.xlvetsfarm.co.uk/livestock-matters Farmers Weekly (2018) Article [Online] Available from: http://www.fwi.co.uk/livestock/what-are-the-benefits-of-milk-replacer-for-calfrearers.htm VetSkills (2018) Courses [Online] Available from: http://vetskills.co.uk/courses/ Veterinary Practice (2018) [Online] Available from: http://fs- 1.5mpublishing.com/vet/issues/2018/01/vp_2018_01.pdf XL Vets (2018e) Join our community [Online] Available from: http://www.xlvets.co.uk/join-our-community 23

Equine Skills (2018) Home [Online]Available from: http://equineskills.co.uk/ XL Vets (2018f) Equine Matters [Online] Available from: http://www.xlvetsequine.co.uk/equine-matters Healthy Youngstock (2018) KBYH [Online} Available from: http://www.healthyyoungstock.co.uk/ Healthy Horses (2018) KBHH [Online] Available from: http://www.healthyhorses.co.uk 24