Linnaeus Group

Peter Renwick and Malcolm McKee, both veterinary surgeons, had grown 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 Malcolm to step back from running the business day-to-day and become Non-Executive Directors whilst retaining a shareholding.

Succession planning: Brought together a highly experienced management team to take the business forward

21 acquisitions completed

Geographical expansion from 1 site to 87, including five specialist referral centres

EBITDA increased by more than 700%

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's offering and expand its geographic reach. At the end of Sovereign's investment the Group was recognised as one of the UK's leading veterinary groups with:

• 87 sites including five state-of-the-art specialist referral centres
• a team of over 1,400 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.