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VetPlus's advert warns pet owners that if their veterinary practice is IVC-owned, they will not be able to buy VetPlus products there. (Stock photo)

VetPlus advert urges pet owners to check if their practice is IVC-owned

Nutraceutical company VetPlus has taken out advertisements in the national press to highlight the fact that pet owners can no longer buy its products from practices that are owned by Independent Vetcare (IVC).

The move comes after a recently reported dispute between the two companies. In March, VetPlus founder David Haythornthwaite told The Times that his entire range of products had been ‘blackballed’ by IVC in favour of the group’s newly created own-brand range.

In an advert running in national and veterinary publications, VetPlus warns pet owners that if their practice is owned by IVC, they will no longer be able to buy the following products from them: Synoquin, Promax, Samylin, Aktivait, Lypex, Renate and Epilease.

The advert reads: ‘IVC is a corporate group which over the past few years has purchased 536 vet practices across the UK. Many pet owners are unaware of this move and its repercussions. One of these is their decision to replace VetPlus and other similar products with their “own brands”, and as such have stopped their vets from prescribing our products. This obviously makes it very difficult for our existing customers.’

The advert directs pet owners to find out if their practice is owned by IVC and states that they can still buy VetPlus products at ‘1000s of other vet practices throughout the UK’.

In response, IVC told MRCVSonline: “We are very concerned by the tone of the recent VetPlus adverts which we consider misleading. We have never forbidden or prevented our vets from recommending any product or pet food which they may consider appropriate for their clients’ pets. We simply do not stock all products but there is nothing to prevent a vet from recommending a product which a client can buy elsewhere.

“We also think it is inappropriate for VetPlus to use the word ‘prescribing’ instead of ‘recommending’ – none of the VetPlus range are prescription drugs and so cannot be prescribed. Instead, VetPlus, for reasons best known to them, seem to want to pretend that we are somehow affecting our vets’ clinical freedom when nothing could be further from the truth.

“Finally, it is sad to note that on top of this, VetPlus staff have on numerous occasions been unprofessional and threatening in their dealings with members of our group and people in our practices.”

In a statement last month, VetPlus founder Mr Haythornthwaite said: “IVC has introduced its own-label products, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with own-brand products.

“I haven’t got any problems with that at all, except when they decide all their current customers can no longer buy the products they’ve been buying for many, many years - and are highly satisfied with, effectively they’ve excluded us, and stopped the customer’s choice. Now that isn’t a clinical director being given the freedom to run the practice as he or she sees fit.”

According to a report in The Times in April, Mr Haythornthwaite told The Times IVC had banned his sales team from calling on any of its practices, and wrote to each practice with instructions not to buy VetPlus products.

However, IVC has responded by saying VetPlus products had never been on its preferred buying list and the clinical board has “never recommended practices buy the VetPlus product range”. During a recent review of its inventory, the company said it discovered that some practices who had recently joined the group were still carrying the VetPlus range.

“We have therefore reminded them that this is not a product we would normally carry and clarified that we do not as a rule stock their products,” the statement said.

IVC said it is “perfectly normal for companies to choose suppliers with whom to do business” and with over 600 branches the company has “an obvious need to rationalise” its supplier base.

It added: “There is a vast range of nutraceutical products on the UK market. In much the same way that we cannot carry every range of pet food, we cannot carry every nutraceutical product.”

VetPlus’s advert has appeared in the veterinary press and the company says it will be running in national newspapers, consumer magazines and dog periodicals.

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