Celebrating 10 years of growth - Westpoint Veterinary Group

Continued from page 35
Rob still spends time visiting
farmers, and the main reason
behind his steady expansion is
not the commercial opportunities
offered by new locations
but the fact that he doesn’t want
WESTPOINT VETERINARY GROUP
Farmers appreciate
transparent drugs pricing
to be more than 40 minutes away from the
animals he looks after.
“At the end of the day I became a vet
because I care about animals and their
health. I don’t want to be in a position
where an animal is suffering and I don’t
have anyone close enough to go and treat
it quickly,” he explained. “Our expansion
programme is based on filling in gaps so
that we can get to where we need to be in a
reasonable amount of time.
Westpoint also wins new customers
because of its transparent approach to drug
pricing. Rob believes that in the past some
vets kept their professional fees unrealistically
low by making an unreasonably large
profit on the drugs they supplied.
This cross-subsidy made them appear to
be offering a lower-priced service while
forcing the farmer to make up the difference
by paying too much for the products
he then had to buy.
“I decided that I would be far more
transparent about the prices I was buying
and selling my drugs for and tell my clients
that they would have to pay slightly
more for my professional fees because I
wasn’t making a killing on the drugs,” he
explained.
That policy has paid off, since the now
wide availability of online drug companies
means that farmers know what they
should be paying for drugs and appreciate
the transparency this brings.
In 2006 Rob took that transparency a
step further by starting Farmacy.co.uk,
one of the UK’s leading online farm medicine
providers. “Because of the scale of the
business we can negotiate great prices for
the medicines we provide and so farmacy.
co.uk set out to provide responsible, cost
effective medicines and advice over the
internet,” he explained.
Farmacy.co.uk is available not just to
Westpoint customers but to any farmer
who wants to sign up to the service and
buy medical supplies and treatments from
a reliable online supplier.
Westpoint demonstrates its commitment
to agriculture and animal welfare by supporting
a number of groups and organisations.
Rob sits on the West Sussex Grasslands
Committee and is heavily involved with
the local National Farmers’ Union and the
South East Holstein Club.
Westpoint also supports the Royal Agricultural
Society of England and was
chosen as the show vets for their AgriLIVE
event at Stoneleigh Park in 2009 and again
this year.
The practice is represented within local
and national animal welfare organisations
such as the South East Animal Health and
Welfare Group and The English Cattle
Health and Welfare Group, as well as sitting
on the calf export panel set up by
the RSPCA and Compassion in World
Farming.
Westpoint believes the future of farming
revolves around training and educating
staff and farmers.
Chairman of the Westpoint board Matt
Dobbs explained: “Farmers want to be able
to do more themselves, and by working
with our clients we can provide them with
the skills and knowledge they need.”
The practice has worked on behalf of
farmers with major supermarkets and
processors to help these bodies promote
confidence among consumers as well as
high standards of animal welfare.
Continued on page 38
Rob carrying out semen analysis on farm
www.southeastfarmer.net South East Farmer - September 2010