Member Article

Behind the business with MedicAnimal Ltd

Ivan Retzignac, founder and CEO of MedicAnimal Ltd, an online seller of veterinary products, takes Bdaily behind the business.

What key challenges has your company recently faced?

MedicAnimal.com is the UK and one of Europe’s largest online retailers of veterinary products and animal supplies. We sell pet supplies from food and supplements to wormers and prescription medicines, typically only available at veterinaries so our biggest obstacle is pet and animal owners not being aware that we exist!

Most of the products we sell are only available to purchase from the vet and dispatched under strict regulations, suppliers and vets were initially viewing us as a potential threat to the entire industry. However unlike other e-tailers, at MedicAnimal.com we believe that pet care should be both affordable and convenient, without sacrificing the quality of that care whilst remaining committed to educating customers on responsible pet care both preventively and therapeutically.

Co-Founder & CVO Andrew Bucher, also a Veterinary Surgeon and I, wanted to offer a full service approach; complimenting rather than substituting vets, offering free advice, from our team of vets and superintendent pharmacist with live chat on email and by phone, on how to choose products, and how to take proper care of pets.

What is your biggest achievement over the past 12 months?

Over 1,500,000 transacting customers across the websites of which 80% have ordered in the past 12 months. Our turnover has rocketed from £16m in 2011 to £47m in 2012.

To start up a business often doesn’t cost very much, but to gain scale is a bigger task altogether! Raising capital has helped support our rapid growth and we have had to develop and build our operations.

We also operate across Europe and MedicAnimal.com also offers live chat facilities with vets in five languages. Although MedicAnimal Ltd’s customers are 70% pet owners in the UK, approximately 30% are across other European territories. We have customer service facilities in native languages, all centralised from the London office with local phone numbers.

What is your biggest focus for the coming year?

We have just been through a big round of investment and are now at the point where profitability and continued expansion is what we are focused on. This also includes a strong drive for profitable growth.

If you had to choose one top piece of advice for someone just starting out in business or is currently in operation within your industry sector, what would it be?

We have 220 people working for MedicAnimal Ltd. We had this idea that all employees should have equity in the business. We have made a bet they will do a better job than those outsourced. Employees, therefore will not be thinking short-term, but with a vested interest will want to create value in the long term. More businesses should do the same!

Can you share with us your view of the current landscape of business in your region or generally and where your organisation sits within it?

The overlap with online pet shops selling the same products as us is small because the products we sell are typically only available at veterinaries. Often a visit to the vet is short and there isn’t time to go through how to choose products. Our vets, vet nurses, pharmacists and trained customer service team offer a free advice service combined with the convenience of purchasing quality products at competitive prices and we don’t charge for shipping across markets in France/Germany/UK.

Do you think its E-commerce that’s the name of the game and what retailers should look at more?

Absolutely, most purchase online. Often our target customer is in full time work and doesn’t have the time to go and purchase product or buying bulky bags of food is inconvenient so having supplies delivered to their door makes proper pet care as convenient as possible.

What’s made a difference is not so much our expertise in online retail, more our expertise and free services in the pet space. There was a huge information barrier that customers need to get over before making those purchases online. MedicAnimal.com has the ability to provide that service combined with the convenience of e-commerce.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Tom Keighley .