10 Feb 2026
Locating a new business next to one of the UK’s busiest airports certainly sounds like a good idea for a practice with big ambitions and high hopes for a rapid take-off. And for Stansted Veterinary Specialists it’s proved to be the perfect spot, as VBJ discovered when we paid a visit last month…
VBJ
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Build it and they will come” is a line from an old Kevin Costner film that you won’t see crop up too often in a veterinary business magazine, but the oft-used quote pretty much sums up the ethos of anyone who ever opened their own practice.
Because you may have the very best team, an amazing facility and a brilliant business plan, but until the doors actually open and clients begin to arrive, going it alone is always something of a leap of faith.
And if that’s true for first opinion practices, it is doubly so for referral sites where the levels of investment required, in what will always essentially be a niche market, mean the costs of getting it wrong are often even higher.
So, when the practice in question is a 16,000 sq ft, bespoke building staffed by a leading specialist team and kitted out with some of the highest-spec kit money can buy, the stakes are significant.
Throw in the fact that Stansted Veterinary Specialists sits within the orbit of some of the UK’s largest referral centres, and it’s clear managing partner Mayank Seth and the rest of the ownership team had done their homework before investing more than £2 million of their own money.
“It’s a personal project to the five people involved in it,” Mayank explained. “Rather than it being a spreadsheet exercise from a larger group, all of us looked at it and asked: ‘Where would we want to work? How would we want this to work?’ We were the final decision makers on everything.
“We have several big referral behemoths that are our major competitors. If you put them on a map, we are in the geometric centre. We’re not necessarily trying to go toe-to-toe with any one of them, but we can attract vets and clients from the fringe of all of them. We are independent, and I think people are rediscovering the same specialists they knew before, just in a different environment with more of a personal touch.”
And – from its bespoke design to its clever use of branding – Stansted Veterinary Specialists is full of personal touches that give this painstakingly put together practice a “wow factor” to rival any of its big-hitting neighbours.
Due to planning constraints, the building may look like all the other units on the upscale business park in which it sits, but beneath its wood-clad exterior walls lurks a very different beast indeed.
The entirety of the building’s interior is bespoke and was designed and fitted to the precise demands of Mayank and his business partners, all of whom are boarded specialists; Darren Barnes (small animal surgery), Rachel Miller (internal medicine), Inês de Freitas (neurology) and Daniel Housley (diagnostic imaging).
Mayank, who is managing director of the practice and serves as its clinical director, is also an internal medicine specialist with vast experience of the UK veterinary referral market.
After graduating from the RVC in 2004, Mayank went on to complete an internship at the Animal Health Trust with fellow directors Darren Barnes and Rachel Miller. He then undertook residency at the University of Pennsylvania, before returning to the UK to work at VRCC (now Southfields). His career then saw a return to the Animal Health Trust, where he held a number of senior roles followed by a stint at Dick White Referrals.
Three years ago, and with an idea for Stansted Veterinary Specialists already in mind, he stepped away from salaried work to locum while he and his would-be fellow directors set about turning their ambitious plans into reality.
He added: “It is not for the faint-hearted. The building cost two-and-a-half million pounds, and that is just for the interior fit-out – we rent the shell and core from the landlord. Then you have approximately £1,000,000 of additional equipment, including the imaging equipment and then the operating capital.
“You don’t have that kind of money sitting in a bank account. We had to build a financial package with brokers, but in terms of director investments, it is a substantial amount that has come from the partners. We have taken on a significant amount of personal liability to get this done.
“We knew we wanted to be in this area. We looked at other properties, but we didn’t want a run-down industrial unit where you expect someone to spend their days welding, not caring for a dog. We liked this business park because of its location, aesthetic and the available outdoor space, but the plot had planning permission for an office block.
“The landowners said: ‘We have a budget for an office block. We will build the shell, but two-and-a-half million for the interior? No thank you.’ The construction of a standard office can’t take an MRI –the floor strength and the concrete walls need to be different. So, we had to modify the build. Externally it looks the same because of the planning consent, but inside it’s very different from all the other buildings on this site.”
Due to the massive costs involved with fitting out and equipment, Mayank and his team negotiated a 25-year lease to protect their investment, while hire purchase agreements for big ticket items like the 64-slice Phillips CT, Canon Vantage Fortian MRI machine and a full suite of B-Braun infusion pumps helped offset some of the other significant start-up costs.
One of the costs that could not be deferred was the £100,000 outlay for the installation of an electricity substation to power the MRI machine that currently sits in a purpose-built pod outside the building, but plans are already in place to locate a machine to a specially reinforced room on the first floor of the practice.
Other costs involved the installation of air conditioning throughout the building, while a system of fully digitised patient medical records, forms and checklists has also been implemented to provide clinicians with instant access via screens throughout the practice or wherever they are in the world.
Cubex machines mean the use of controlled medicines is closely monitored and also help ensure that the bane of missed charges is kept to a minimum, while there has been no expense spared in the reception areas either.
Properly split into cat and dog waiting spaces, large windows flood the reception space with natural light, showcasing natural wood finishes and design flourishes, including a living logo made from petrified moss.
And this is not the only natural touch in the customer facing areas where hanging baskets add another welcome burst of green for clients who also have access to complimentary tea and coffee facilities.
But despite the fact that no expense has been spared in any corner of the practice, prices at Stansted Veterinary Specialists – most of which are fixed and available on the website – are in many cases significantly lower than those of their corporate competitors.
Mayank said: “We are substantially cheaper. I know that some practices are advertising a cost-controlled, fixed price on their spinal decompression surgeries at more than £7,000. Ours come in 25 per cent cheaper, and that’s even after we reviewed and increased the prices to meet our time and costs.
“There are some things where the margins are slimmer and we can’t be £2,000 cheaper, but where we can sensibly afford to be lower, we are. We also didn’t want to just add disciplines simply because they generate revenue.
“We wanted the disciplines that interact with each other on a substantial proportion of their cases – medicine, cardiology, oncology, surgery, neurology, diagnostic imaging and anaesthesia. We wanted a cohesive hospital, not just a list of profitable services.
“But we are making money and seeing more cases in terms of the projections we put forward to the bank, we are exceeding them. That has actually been a problem for us. Being cash-flow conscious, we started with a skeletal staff of 18. We are now up to 22 and have more than 10 vacancies we are currently recruiting for.”
And in the very near future it is likely the practice will also be developing its emergency and critical care provisions. Like Davies Veterinary Specialists up the road, which set up its own ECC service last year, the team at Stansted also has plans in place to respond to the changing needs of its veterinary client base. “The profession has changed,” said Mayank.
“We have moved from smaller practices with mixed-animal vets to a generation who want career development with a very specific small animal focus. The depth and breadth of knowledge within larger first-opinion practices is growing; more vets have certificates and can do more themselves.
“This means the balance of what referrals need to be has shifted. The cases we see no w are either fundamentally more complex or chronic issues that need high-level management – or they are emergencies where the level of facilities, nursing, and 24/7 staffing is simply greater than a local practice can cope with. Consequently, we are seeing a lot more emergency work than used to be the case.”
With the infrastructure also in place to begin offering radioiodine therapy for cats, Stansted Veterinary Specialists seems to be cruising towards a bright future, and it’s a future that is likely to see the practice remain in independent hands.
Having witnessed a number of other start-ups become successful only to be sold to external investors, the ownership structure at Stansted should ensure shares will only ever be held by its employees.
Mayank added: “We wanted to make sure that the whole team could see a long-term future at SVS. Our shares are restricted to employees so that if one of the directors decides to leave in the future, we are incentivised to sell to employees first. We are using the tax efficiency of the Enterprise Management Incentive scheme to offer share options to some employees to keep them invested in the long-term success of the business.
“Additionally, we have a profit-related bonus scheme for all staff to make sure that the financial success of the business is something everyone can share in.”
