The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) completed its market investigation into the household pets veterinary sector and published its Final Report in March 2026. The report proposes several remedies to improve how the veterinary services market works in the UK. 

NERA supported Pets at Home PLC (PAH), the leading pet care business in the UK, and its external legal advisors, Squire Patton Boggs, during the investigation. Building on NERA’s input, the CMA report crucially recognised the unique role the PAH business model has played in the market. 

PAH provides pet owners with everything they need to look after their pet, from food and toys to grooming and healthcare. As part of its platform, PAH has more than 450 vet practices across the UK. 

Pets are very important to many UK households—more than half of UK households have a pet. The CMA started studying the veterinary services market in 2023 based on concerns that vet treatment prices were rising too quickly for customers and that regulation was outdated. This was a high-profile investigation for the CMA, with more than 50,000 pet owners and veterinary professionals writing to the CMA and frequent media stories. The CMA commenced a full market investigation in 2024. A market investigation digs into how all aspects of competition and consumer outcomes work in the market. In-depth economic analyses form the bedrock of the findings. As CMA market investigations can culminate in game-changing, legally binding remedies, they are crucial strategic moments for the affected players in the market. 

PAH participated actively and openly throughout the investigation. It was crucial to demonstrate PAH’s unique business model to the CMA, which differentiated PAH from the other five large vet groups and the hundreds of small independent vets across the UK. 

Points of differentiation included PAH working with its vets on a joint venture basis, giving the vet clinical and operational freedom; PAH having grown its portfolio organically rather than through acquisition, opening more greenfield practices in the UK than anyone else over the previous decade; and PAH’s innovative business model delivering significant synergies in terms of cost and convenience, such as positioning many of its vet practices within larger PAH pet care centres. 

Evidencing these areas of differentiation and their empirical impact on efficiency, quality, and prices was crucial to PAH’s response to the CMA. 

NERA supported PAH and Squire Patton Boggs through various stages of the market investigation, including:

1. Compiling and analysing the tens of thousands of data records requested by and submitted to the CMA. 

2. Conducting local market (geospatial catchment) analyses to demonstrate that PAH vet practices faced healthy competition locally. 

3. Comparing PAH prices to other vet practices across the UK with econometric analyses, helping to reflect the superior value for money delivered by PAH’s vet practices. 

4. Conducting economic profitability analysis over six years to demonstrate the efficiencies and investment that flowed from PAH’s healthy financial performance. 

5. Senior Managing Director Grant Saggers giving evidence on the economic analyses and remedies at CMA hearings. 

The NERA team was led by Mr. Saggers and Director Adrien Cervera-Jackson and supported by Consultants James Thomas, Cameron Birchall, Rafael Sambeat, and Kate Eyre, Senior Analysts Tanya Narang and Teppo Lietsalmi, and Analysts Alisa Smaghina and Clara Etcheverry.