Linnaeus Group

The Linnaeus Group was established following Sovereign’s 2014 platform investment in Willows Veterinary Centre and Referral Service, one of the largest and most highly regarded small animal specialist veterinary centres in the UK. During the period of Sovereign's investment, 21 more businesses joined the Group. Today Linnaeus is recognised as one of the leading providers of veterinary services in the UK.

Investment Background

Peter Renwick and Malcolm McKee, both veterinary surgeons, had grown their practice (Willows) from a single site into one of the largest and most respected veterinary referral centres in the UK. Having decided to retire they set out to find a buyer for Willows.

Peter explains: “Sovereign recognised our premium product and were keen to build upon it. We felt they would give Willows the best chance of strengthening its position in a changing marketplace – a business that would have the funding and infrastructure to grow. We introduced Lynne Hill to Sovereign as a potential CEO. She had successfully run multidisciplinary facilities and, crucially to us, she was also a vet. Sovereign were prepared to look at that and Lynne was appointed."

A deal was structured that enabled Peter and Malcom to step back from running the business day-to-day and become Non-Executive Directors whilst retaining a shareholding.

Value Creation

Succession planning: Brought together a highly experienced management team to take the business forward
Buy & Build: 21 Acquisitions / Roll-out / Investment capital; the Group's geography and service offering expanded
Sites grew from 1 to 87, including 5 specialist referral centres
EBITDA increased by more than 700%

The Group at exit

With Sovereign’s investment and support, a significant Buy & Build strategy was undertaken to create a market-leading veterinary group.

A further 21 veterinary businesses joined Linnaeus, attracted by the opportunity to be part of a well-invested organisation with an ethos of care and quality. As well as adding further specialist referral hospitals to the Group, Linnaeus built a network of first-opinion, general practices around each referral hospital to diversify Linnaeus’ offering and to expand its geographic reach.

At the end of Sovereign's investment the Group was recognised as one of the UK’s leading veterinary groups and had:

87 sites including 5 state-of-the-art specialist referral centres,
a team of over 1400 including c.360 vets
an enhanced breadth of specialist services including: orthopaedics, ophthalmology, neurology, soft tissue surgery, internal medicine, oncology, dermatology and cardiology

Linnaeus was acquired in June 2018 by Mars Petcare’s Veterinary Health Group, a part of Mars, Inc., which was a natural fit for the Group.

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In their own words

Sovereign recognised our premium product and were keen to build upon it. We felt Sovereign would give Willows the best chance of strengthening its position in a changing marketplace – a business that would have the funding and infrastructure to grow.

Peter Renwick / Co-founder / Willows