21 Nov 2018
In these days of manic corporate consolidation, it is important to remember the benefits owning your own practice can bring. So when VBJ was asked to visit an independently owned practice that is positively thriving in the face of corporate competition, we jumped at the chance.
James Westgate
Job Title
The Veterinary Practice, Lewisham, south-east London.
It would be fair to say independent owners such as Beresford Capps at The Veterinary Practice, Lewisham, are fast becoming something of an endangered species.
According to the latest Vetfile figures, the percentage of UK practices owned by corporate groups is now 43%. At the current rate of travel, pretty soon independent practices (and their owners) will be in the minority.
But Beresford doesn’t look like an endangered species – in fact, he looks and sounds every inch like a poster boy for the benefits of owning and running a veterinary practice.
“I came into practice ownership 19 years ago when I bought this place and I wouldn’t change a thing about any of it,” he said.
“Veterinary medicine was always a vocation for me; it is the one thing I always wanted to do from my childhood days and I have been able to live that dream.
“Yes, there have been some long days and weeks, and things have not always been easy, but what you put in is what you get out and this practice has delivered on every level for me professionally, and for me and the family personally.”
Not that it has been easy. After failing to achieve the A-level grades required for immediate entry into vet school, Beresford headed north from his native Sussex to study animal physiology and nutrition at Leeds.
With his Bachelor of Science degree safely in the bag, he was then accepted to study veterinary medicine at the University of Cambridge and, on graduation, spent time in large animal and equine practice before settling into small animal work.
After spending time managing a practice in Essex, Beresford decided it was time to take the plunge and buy his own practice. That was 18 years ago and he hasn’t looked back since.
“After working for the Riverside group as a practice manager in Essex, I locumed for a short time before this practice came up for sale,” added Beresford. “At that time there had been an independent practice here for more than 30 years, and that had been run as a one man operation by Chris Godfrey, who was the guy who sold it to me.
“There were challenges, of course, and starting out on my own was difficult – especially as Chris had quite a loyal following – and, inevitably, I did lose the odd client in those early days, which is understandable as we didn’t have that relationship.
“But I worked hard, and brought in youth and energy, as well as a whole load of new skills. Chris did things his way, and I came in and did things my way, and it seems to have worked well and we grew from that.”
Beresford bought the practice back in 2000 with relatively little fuss; but, as he explained, the financial landscape was less hostile to new businesses than has been the case at times since the financial crash eight years later.
He said: “Back then it was very easy to get the money to buy. When I asked the bank for money, as I wanted to buy a veterinary practice, it just asked how much I needed and would I like a little bit more.
“It was a good deal as I got the loan at 0.5% interest, and that loan has now been repaid in full.”
Since then, Beresford has diversified his business interests with a buy-to-let company, and also 100 acres of prime West Sussex pasture on which he raises beef cattle.
But veterinary medicine remains his main passion, and building up his own practice has clearly been the outstanding highlight of his working life so far.
He said: “I still enjoy every day I come into work and feel like a man in his element when I am here in this practice. This place has been wonderful for my family and for me. I have given it everything, but it has given me everything back that I could ever want.
“I have a number of other businesses as well – the practice, the farm and a buy-to-let company – but this place is the cornerstone and it will always come first as it has looked after me and my family all these years.
“I have four children – aged 22, 19, 15 and 9 – and am still married to my wife of 23 years. Sure, they have had to make small sacrifices along the way, but I would not change anything.”
With his energetic personality and passionate approach to veterinary care, it’s clear Beresford is a man with a strong personality and his own way of doing things. It also quickly becomes apparent those elements of his personality have been key to his success in building the business.
He said: “My name is above the door, and it’s me who has to stand up and account for that. My focus has always been on providing clinical excellence and making sure the clients get a good relationship with me.
“I have always run it as a family orientated practice, and I still know most of my clients on first name terms, which is important.
“It has been very hard; there has never been any on-call here, as we have always used Vets Now, but in the early days I was here all hours seeing patients. I was always available back then and very much part of this community – that is how you make your name.
“It is really important for vets to be part of the community they serve and that has been lost a little. I love walking around and being stopped by local pet owners who know me; it happens a lot to me and I love it – I love being part of that. That is enormous.”
The Lewisham clinic is not the biggest practice. The two consult rooms and reception space are on the ground floor, with the dog and cat wards, preparation area and theatre based below in the converted basement of the town house in Lee High Road.
Beresford has also ensured his practice has the latest equipment, including a Fuji SonoSite Edge II ultrasound, ECG and endoscopy, as well as advanced orthopaedic equipment.
The whole setup has a laid back, friendly feel – an ambience that clearly suits the urban pet owners the practice has served for more than half a century.
“The economic demographic is very mixed around Lewisham, Blackheath and Catford,” said Beresford.
And that mixed clientele means Beresford often adopts a case-by-case approach when it comes to charging for his services.
He added: “Because it is my practice, if I don’t want to charge somebody the whole amount, I don’t need to.
“That is something that has stood me in good stead. If clients can afford it then they pay the right amount, but if they are poor and I can fix that animal, I will do that and charge what I think is fair for that person.
“For me, it is a real honour and a privilege to be able to do that for this community. I have been given a wonderful skill and I want to put that skill to the best use. It allows me to put something back; I have done very well out of this practice and, as I can afford to do something like that, I will.”
Such philanthropy has clearly not harmed practice profits, though. Beresford bought the Lewisham practice for £230,000 nearly 20 years ago and the business was recently valued at seven figures – without the building, which Beresford owns separately.
As alluded to earlier, strong turnover and a profit margin in excess of 30% has allowed Beresford to provide a good standard of living for himself and his family.
He also manages to
maintain a good work-life balance these days, too,
having scaled back his time
at the practice, with the rest of his time split between his wife and children, his other business interests and indulging his passion for nice cars.
He said: “I feel I have a good work-life balance and that is very important – being able to just go off and sit in a field if I want to so I can watch the deer come across or whatever.
“Now I do most mornings and when the other vets are here, I usually go home early in the afternoons and every second or third Saturday I work here, too. I have a full-time assistant vet and I come in to work most mornings these days.
“My assistant has really helped drive the practice income wise. She has been with us for the past 12 months – she gets me and gets this place, and that is very important.
“Knowing she is here means I can relax a bit and enjoy my cars. I have a couple of Porsches and a few other vehicles – including a Land Rover Defender covered in cow poo.
“But that is where I get my buzz – I drive an hour to work each way and I want to enjoy that drive. Some of the clients have made derogatory comments about my cars, but tough – I have always had nice cars since I have been here. I am a petrol head; that’s my thing.”
Beresford admits he is fortunate to have been able to find such balance at this stage of his working life, but admits it is not always easy to find suitable clinical staff to join his team.
And part of the reason why he feels recruiting the right staff is such a challenge is the inexorable rise of the locum.
“The next generation of vets – and this is a problem in other professions – don’t want to work out-of-hours and they want to work 9am to 5pm,” he said. “We have locums coming forward saying they will do Monday to Friday, but not weekends, and then you have locums who say they want to work in a big practice because they say they do not feel confident to work on their own.”
He added: “I was talking to somebody who came in for a job last week and she told me how most of her friends had gone off to become locums because they can make more money that way.
“That may be the case, but those vets just get shoved into vaccination clinics or just consults, and they are losing their surgical skills and so on. But you cannot blame owners for using locums in that way.
“How can the veterinary profession sustain itself under those sort of conditions?”
From locums, the conversation moves on to the next generation of graduates and, more specifically, their suitability to the realities of working life as a veterinary surgeon.
He said: “There is a real case to be made for selecting different types of candidates
to study veterinary medicine and it really needs looking at. They need to be bringing in people from different backgrounds.
“Before I qualified, my mentor said to me they are just bringing intelligent idiots into the profession – they have all this academic skill, but put them in front of somebody or an animal and they just do not have a clue.
“It is all well and good being able to read the books and understand them, but you need to be able to converse with people, too. Talking to people is one of the things I enjoy most about my job and finding out about them.”
With everything going so well, it seems likely Beresford will remain a fixture at the practice for some years to come. He is looking at the possibility of adding a MIUS all-in-one scanning block to the back of his practice, but he admits an exit strategy is in place.
He said: “When I first qualified as a vet, my intention was to keep my hand in until I dropped, but I think I have realised now there has to be an exit strategy if I want to go on and do other things.
“My strategy is that I would always like this to be an independent practice, but I have been approached by corporates and, at the end of the day, it comes down to money.
“I don’t like to say this, but if the corporates are going to offer far more money than an independent person is, I would take the corporate deal.
“If I could structure it some other way so an independent can remain, that is what I would do as I think independent practice is really important for the future of the sector.”
