Pets at Home

Who owns Pets at Home?

Pets at Home Group plc is a public company listed on the London Stock Exchange (ticker PETS), so its shareholders own it. It owns the Vets4Pets and Companion Care brands.

What the records show:

• Companies House: listed companies don’t have to name a person with significant control, so the plc’s entry shows none (register).
• The vet business: Vets4Pets and Companion Care sit under Pets at Home Vet Group Ltd, which the plc owns through two holding companies, with more than 75% at each step (register).
• Local practices: most practices are joint ventures, each its own company. Pets at Home holds half their shares but, by its own accounts, no share of their profits and no control (see below).

A pet retailer with a vet business

Pets at Home is the UK’s largest pet supplies retailer, but they also operate a significant veterinary services business. Most of their veterinary practices are co-located with retail stores under the Vets4Pets or Companion Care brands.

Business model

The Pets at Home model is vertically integrated:

• Retail stores selling pet food, supplies, and accessories
• Veterinary practices (Vets4Pets/Companion Care) often inside or next to stores
• Grooming services (Groom Room)
• Pet insurance

This creates potential conflicts of interest, such as product recommendations from vets that benefit the parent company.

Joint venture model

Most Vets4Pets and Companion Care practices are run as joint venture partnerships (JVPs), not as directly managed corporate branches.

• Each practice is its own company, run by a local Joint Venture Partner (a vet, nurse or practice manager).
• The local partner sets their own prices, products and services, so costs vary from branch to branch rather than being fixed centrally.
• Day-to-day clinical and operational decisions are made locally.
• Partners earn 100% of their practice’s profits once start-up business loans are repaid, and keep the value of the practice when they sell (Vets for Pets: practice ownership).
• Pets at Home holds half the shares in each practice company, but its accounts say these shares take no part of the profits and give it no control over decisions. It charges each practice fees for the brand, systems and back-office support it provides. In the year to March 2026 this fee income came to £108.4m (FY26 results, 27 May 2026).

So a Vets4Pets is locally run, with a large company behind it. It has more say over its own prices than a branch of a company-run chain, but it is not a fully independent practice: it pays Pets at Home for the brand and support, and Pets at Home holds half its shares. How long a partnership has run differs from branch to branch.

Regulatory matters

Pets at Home’s veterinary businesses were included in the CMA’s market investigation into veterinary services, which concluded in March 2026 with a package of remedies covering ownership disclosure and pricing transparency.

In July 2026 the government accepted all of the CMA’s recommendations, committing to replace the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966 with new legislation that will license veterinary businesses and introduce a binding consumer redress scheme, expected to be delivered through a new veterinary ombudsman.

What pet owners should know

• Vets4Pets and Companion Care practices are mostly locally owned joint ventures: the vet running your practice usually has an ownership stake and sets their own prices.
• Because pricing is set locally, compare nearby Vets4Pets branches rather than assuming a single chain-wide price.
• These practices still sit within a retail business that sells pet products, and each one pays Pets at Home fees for its brand and support.
• Co-location with retail can be convenient but may create commercial pressures.