Anicura joins Mars Petcare

Anicura joins Mars Petcare 150 150 Sven Jan Arndt

What sounds so harmless actually has immense significance for our industry. While the Swedish financial investors still disguised themselves as long-term investors with the desire to only do good things for pets, the mask is now finally falling off. After less than 8 years on the market, the financial investors sold to the Mars Group, one of the largest companies in the food and pet industry alongside Nestle.

Regarding Mars Petcare from your own press release:

“…These include PEDIGREE®, WHISKAS®, ROYAL CANIN®, NUTRO™, GREENIES™, SHEBA®, CESAR®, IAMS™ ​​and EUKANUBA™ as well as the WALTHAM Center for Pet Nutrition, which has been conducting scientific research on nutrition and pet nutrition for more than 50 years promotes the health of pets. Mars Petcare is also the world's largest veterinary healthcare provider with a network of more than 2,000 veterinary clinics, including BANFIELD™, BLUEPEARL™, PET PARTNERS™ and VCA™. …”

A tendency towards monopolization of an entire market seems clear when you look at this list.

The complete German press release can be found here: 180611-anicura-anclides-sich-mars-petcare-an

What does this mean for the veterinary industry?

First of all, the wind that has previously prevailed at Anicura will probably become even more rigid and will be trimmed even more towards profit and return optimization. A Mars has high return targets and has already attracted attention in the past due to one or two scandals ( scandal about plastic particles in chocolate bars, etc.).

On the other hand, veterinarians who want to sell should think more carefully about who they sell to in the future. Because the other colleagues on the market such as Evidensia etc. are also profit-oriented financial investors. It seems self-evident that they also have an exit in mind in the long term.

In our opinion, anyone who wants to continue to provide their services seriously in the future, free from the pressure of sales targets or return expectations from external financial investors, should think carefully about whether the vaunted advantages cannot be achieved in another way and whether the disadvantages even outweigh the disadvantages.