GoVets is an independent, RCVS-accredited veterinary practice in Miles Platting, around 10 minutes from Manchester city centre. Established in 2022 and rated 4.9 out of 5 from more than 2,280 Google reviews.
Contact Info
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Address
Unit 1, Varley Business Centre, James Street, Miles Platting, Manchester, M40 8EL
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Phone
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Email
© GoVets 2026, All Rights Reserved.
Manchester Vet Ownership Census
Greater Manchester Vet Ownership Census · 2026
Who Really Owns Your Vet?
We mapped every small-animal veterinary practice across Greater Manchester's 10 boroughs and traced who actually owns each one. More than half turned out to be owned by one of six national corporate groups. Most still trade under a local-sounding name you'd never guess was corporate.
"GoVets is an independently owned veterinary practice based in Miles Platting, Manchester. In compiling this census, GoVets was itself verified as independent using the same public ownership-disclosure records applied to every other practice."
103
Vet practices documented
55.3%
Corporately owned
40.8%
Independently owned
10
Boroughs covered
The headline number
Of the 103 small-animal vet practices we could locate and verify across Greater Manchester, a majority are now owned by one of six national consolidator groups, not independent local businesses.
Ownership by borough
Independent share ranges from 62.5% in Trafford down to just 10% in Tameside. Sorted by strongest independent presence first.
Who owns the rest?
Six named groups account for the region's corporate-owned practices, plus a further 9 confirmed corporate but not individually attributed to a specific group in this research pass.
The full directory
Every practice we documented, with its ownership classification, corporate parent (where applicable), and the source used to verify it. Search or filter below. GoVets' own listing is highlighted.
Showing all 103 practices
| Practice ▾ | Area ▾ | Ownership ▾ | Owner / Group ▾ | Source |
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Methodology
- Practice discovery: Google Maps business listings were queried across geographic anchor points covering all 10 Greater Manchester boroughs, then deduplicated by name and postcode.
- Ownership classification: the primary source was whoownsyourvet.co.uk, an independent UK database tracking vet ownership via Companies House filings and the website-disclosure statements corporate groups must now publish under CMA veterinary market study remedies. Where a practice wasn't listed there, we fell back to matching the practice's website domain against known corporate brand domains (ivc.co.uk, cvsvets.com, vets4pets.com, medivetgroup.com, whitecrossvets.co.uk, vets-now.com).
- Unmatched practices with an independent-style domain and no corporate signal were classified Independent at "moderate" confidence (flagged individually), since they were not each individually cross-checked against Companies House persons-with-significant-control filings.
- Geographic scope: practices in neighbouring Lancashire, Merseyside, West Yorkshire, and Derbyshire postcode areas that surfaced in wide-radius searches were excluded as outside Greater Manchester. Farm/equine-only practices and one national mobile-only telehealth vet service were also excluded. This census covers small-animal/companion practices with a fixed premises only.
- Multi-branch practices are counted once per physical branch location.
Limitations (stated honestly)
- This is not a certified, wall-to-wall census. Coverage relies on Google Maps listing completeness; a small number of practices with poor map visibility or very new registrations may be missing.
- 19 of the 103 practices (18.4%) carry "moderate" confidence: independent-style branding with no corporate signal found, but not individually verified against Companies House.
- Two verified classifications contradict what branding alone would suggest (Ashleigh and Atherton Veterinary Centres), a reminder that names are not a reliable ownership signal. This census relies on ownership-disclosure data rather than branding for exactly that reason.
- Ownership changes over time. This is a snapshot as of 13 September 2026.
- The initial research pass logged three practices twice under different border-area labels; these were merged into single entries before publishing the figures above.
- 9 practices are confirmed corporate-owned but the specific one of the six named groups was not individually re-verified in this pass ("Corporate: parent not itemised").
Source library
- whoownsyourvet.co.uk: North West practice ownership database
- whoownsyourvet.co.uk: national corporate group market-share figures
- IVC Evidensia: practice locator
- CVS Group: practice pages
- Medivet Group: practice pages
- Vets4Pets (Pets at Home / CVS joint venture): practice pages
- VetPartners: group site
- Google Maps business listings, queried via SerpApi, 13 September 2026
Frequently asked questions
Who compiled the Greater Manchester Vet Ownership Census?
GoVets, an independently owned veterinary practice based in Miles Platting, Manchester, compiled the census by cross-referencing public ownership-disclosure records for every small-animal vet practice across Greater Manchester's 10 boroughs.
Is GoVets an independent or a corporately owned vet practice?
GoVets is independently owned. It was verified as independent using the same ownership-disclosure sources applied to every other practice in this census, rather than taking its own word for it.
How many vet practices in Greater Manchester are independently owned?
42 of the 103 practices documented (40.8%) are independently owned, including GoVets.
How many vet practices in Greater Manchester are corporately owned?
57 of the 103 practices documented (55.3%) are owned by one of six national corporate groups.
Which company owns the most vet practices in Greater Manchester?
The Pets at Home / CVS Group joint venture, trading as Vets4Pets, owns the most identified practices in the region (16), followed by IVC Evidensia (10) and CVS Group's other brands (10).
How can I find an independent vet in Manchester?
GoVets, based in Miles Platting (M40 8EL), is an independently owned practice currently accepting new patients, with free registration and a free dental consultation for new clients. The full census also lists every other independently owned practice documented across Greater Manchester, searchable by area.
Download & citation
Journalists and researchers are welcome to use this data. Please cite GoVets and link back to this page.
GoVets (2026). "Who Really Owns Your Vet? The Greater Manchester Independent Vet Census." Published 13 September 2026. Retrieved from https://www.govets.co.uk/manchester-vet-ownership-census/