There are great opportunities for independent veterinary practices to flourish now and in the future.

Our team can help you to achieve your goals in providing the best care for your clients and a business you can be proud of.

Meet the Hazlewoods Veterinary team

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Understanding you

To give you the best accountancy advice, we have 30 years' experience in the veterinary sector and an understanding of every type of practice. 

Practice valuations, sales and purchases are where we excel and can offer you a quality service. In the past three years we have advised on the sale and purchase of veterinary practices in excess of £250m.

Where many vets accountancy firms offer conventional compliance based services, we go far beyond and can help you get to grips with:

  • Fundamental issues of practice management
  • Improving your service
  • Increasing your profits
  • Reducing your costs

Making a difference

To ensure you are getting the most up-to-date service and advice, we have regular contact with veterinary associations to enable us to anticipate developments in veterinary practice. In order to give you access to our wealth of information, we hold seminars on topical issues. 

Members of SPVS, a not-for-profit organisation providing advice and support for veterinary professionals
Members of VMG and pleased to be supporting VMG with the Practice Finance modules taught in their VMG Award, Certificate and Diploma in Veterinary Leadership & Management. You can sign up here.

Case studies

Background: The owners of an established veterinary practice required advice regarding succession planning. The shareholders had started to think about their exit strategy and although they had not ruled out a sale to a corporate at a future date, they were keen for the practice to remain independent in the medium term as they had some key employees who they wanted to make shareholders. 

How we helped: We provided practical advice which included:

  • Valuation of the practice
  • Consideration of affordability for the new shareholders (key employees)
  • Discussions around funding
  • Capital gains tax advice for the existing shareholders
  • Advice regarding an anti-embarrassment clause (this clause ‘makes fair’ any consideration should there be a sale to a corporate within a certain time frame post sale to the new shareholders)
  • Liaising with the solicitors advising on the legal agreements including an updated shareholders agreement
  • Tax efficient remuneration planning to include the new shareholders

The outcome:  The existing shareholders were able to bring new owners into the business, realising some cash, but having left their future options open as regards a corporate sale with some protection over the goodwill value they have sold to the new shareholders.

Background: A client approached us to assist in helping them put into place some KPIs for them to monitor and improve practice performance.

How we helped: We worked with our client to identify the 5 most worthwhile KPIs to track for them and their practice. We used this information to provide a quarterly report as a visual aid which demonstrated trends and where further improvements were needed. We suggested the practice owners work with their team, through better communication of the practice goals and mentoring, to ensure the team were aware of the KPIs and improvements required.

The outcome: The practice is more profitable and the team are feeling happier as they are more aligned with the goals of the practice.

Background: A long standing client was undecided about whether or not to make the leap and purchase a CT scanner for the practice.

How we helped:  We produced some projections, which took into account the initial outlay, future costs and expected income of putting this into place. We also helped guide on how best to fund the new project. This allowed the practice make an informed decision on whether or not to purchase a CT scanner and the potential new income stream this could generate, including when the CT scanner might start paying for itself.

The outcome: Our client now has a CT scanner successfully in place which is proving to be great for the practice’s team development and for client care, as well as improving the practice’s profits. 

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Featured news

Testimonial from Anonymous

"Pro-active, knowledgeable and quietly supportive would be my summary of Hazlewoods. We first joined the Hazlewoods family 4 years ago, on the back of a personal recommendation, primarily for audit purposes, but they soon turned out to be so much more...their staff are personable, comfortingly knowledgeable and always willing to help. Their straight, no nonsense approach to all matters be they personal, audit or corporate makes dealing with them easy and never a chore."

Testimonial from Anonymous

"The professionalism of their team, their knowledge of the industry, the ease of accessibility to any of the team on a day to day basis and the continuity of Hazlewoods personnel during the many projects we have undertaken together have been invaluable to us over the last six years."

Testimonial from Haydn Sharratt

"As an independent Practioner, making a decision to sell one’s Practice is a big enough decision in its own right. I am very pleased that I appointed Hazlewoods to act as my sales advisor as the service I received was exceptional. They went beyond what is expected."

Testimonial from Anonymous

"They have also undertaken benchmarking and given us advice on our prices and pay scale."

Testimonial from Anonymous

"We really do rely enormously on their support and guidance."

Testimonial from Anonymous

"We are very happy with the advice that we have always received which is extremely valuable to us in the running of our business."

Testimonial from Anonymous

"Just a quick note to thank you very much for a thoroughly professional and constructive meeting. It was just the service we had hoped to receive."

Testimonial from Anonymous

"(...) Hazlewoods came highly recommended. We made the decision to move our accounts to Hazlewoods and have found them to be very approachable, polite helpful and efficient in the work that they have carried out for us over the past few months. They helped us with various queries on our accounts, no matter how small they were and always replies promptly. They have given us invaluable information on succession planning which we had been looking for for sometime. (...)"

Testimonial from Anonymous

"We would highly recommend Hazlewoods (…) to anyone looking for high quality accountancy services. (…) We look forward to continuing to working with them for many years ahead as they support our business as we aim to go from strength to strength."

Content image: /uploads/team/unknown.jpg Phil Swan
Phil Swan
Partner, Veterinary and Pharmacy
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Content image: /uploads/team/unknown.jpg Mark Harwood
Mark Harwood
Partner, Veterinary
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Content image: /uploads/team/unknown.jpg Suzanne Headington
Suzanne Headington
Partner, Veterinary
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Content image: /uploads/team/unknown.jpg Rachel Vines
Rachel Vines
Partner, Veterinary
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Content image: /uploads/team/unknown.jpg Natalie Adams
Natalie Adams
Director, Veterinary
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Content image: /uploads/team/unknown.jpg Robert Groves
Robert Groves
Director, Veterinary
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Content image: /uploads/team/unknown.jpg Gemma Hinds
Gemma Hinds
Associate Director, Veterinary
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Content image: /uploads/team/unknown.jpg Michelle Curtis
Michelle Curtis
Associate Director, Veterinary
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Content image: /uploads/team/unknown.jpg Harriet Partridge
Harriet Partridge
Associate Tax Director, Veterinary
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Content image: /uploads/team/unknown.jpg Jonathan Sojka
Jonathan Sojka
Associate Director, Veterinary
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Content image: /uploads/team/unknown.jpg Eleanor Richards
Eleanor Richards
Senior Manager, Veterinary
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Content image: /uploads/team/unknown.jpg James Duguid
James Duguid
Senior Tax Manager, Veterinary and Pharmacy
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Content image: /uploads/team/unknown.jpg Sean Cook
Sean Cook
Manager, Veterinary
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Content image: /uploads/team/unknown.jpg Serena Deakins
Serena Deakins
Associate Manager, Veterinary
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Content image: /uploads/team/unknown.jpg Tara Harris
Tara Harris
Associate Manager, Veterinary and Pharmacy
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