VIRGINIA BEACH, VA / ACCESSWIRE / July 24, 2024 / Inspire Veterinary Partners, Inc. (NASDAQ:IVP) ("Inspire" or the "Company"), an owner and provider of pet health care services throughout the U.S., today issued a corporate update in a Letter to Shareholders from CEO & President, Kimball Carr.
Dear Fellow Shareholders,
I'd like to begin by expressing my upmost thanks and appreciation to all of our team members for their hard work and dedication to doing the best for pets and our stakeholders. I am energized by the passion and commitment of our teams and the resilience of our organization. I'll first provide a refresher on some of the trends we believe are still very favorable for the industry and Inspire, then I will spend some time addressing the success we have had and the work yet to be done.
The Veterinary Industry Continues to Be Vibrant
We remain positioned to benefit from the long-term megatrends in the veterinary business, as pets have become an integral part of the family and owners are demanding high-quality healthcare. The global pet care market is expected to grow from $246 billion in 2023 to $368 billion by 2030, with spending on veterinary services in the U.S. alone exceeding $38 billion in 2023. Additional growth is expected due to increased demand for emergency care and specialty services. Today, the veterinary care industry consists of more than 32,000 providers that employ close to half a million workers. A typical single practice employs 14-15 workers and brings in $1.7 million in annual revenue. While visits to U.S. companion animal clinics showed slight declines over the last two years, pet ownership remains at record or near-record levels coming off the Covid trends of pets added to households. According to Interindustry Economic Research Fund, Inc., sales for the US veterinary practice industry are forecast to grow at a 6.16% compounded annual rate from 2022 to 2027, faster than the growth of the overall economy. Today, it is estimated that 40% of general practices and 25% of emergency clinics are independent. In the coming years, independent clinics will likely continue to be acquired in significant numbers. The need for greater efficiency and technology investment is the driving force behind this trend. When practices join a group network, optimized workflows can increase productivity and revenue, allowing them to reinvest those funds in areas that will improve the client experience.
Our 2023 IPO and Journey as a Newly Public Company
Our IPO in late August of 2023 was an exciting time for the Company as we looked to harness all the benefits of being publicly traded which included access to capital, funding for acquisitions, and attracting and retaining employees. While 2023 was a milestone year, in 2024 we've been focused on performance and the areas in which our company must improve so that IVP can deliver our full potential. Since founding, the Company has sought to leverage several innovative processes related to how we support our veterinary clinics and reward our workforce. Some of the process-oriented innovations did not produce the return we had aimed for and in the fourth quarter of 2023 and early 2024, we implemented a comprehensive strategy focused on better aligning our cost structure with our current operating needs. Those changes included the addition of field leadership with extensive veterinary knowledge to support our teams in our clinics and provide business acumen coaching which was aligned with our growth goals. In Q1 and Q2 of this year we also completed systems integrations across several platforms which allow measurement and oversight of labor, financials, caseload and medical records as well as GAAP compliant financial reporting for the entire organization. All of these rollouts were aimed at building a repeatable process for our teams to which new acquisitions can be added which allows us to efficiently scale our business. As of mid-2024 our clinics now all operate on one cloud-based Practice Management Software system, providing our medical and business leaders with one set of tools from which to coach and allowing remote access to patient records, client schedules and business data at any clinic anywhere in the U.S.
With learnings from how our company will leverage its public listing as a growing micro-cap company and a strategic plan for scaling through future growth, we know it is time for our company to mature. We will continue improving systems and performance as we utilize the benefits of our public listing to fund growth and take responsible action on our balance sheet by taking opportunities to pay down debt and continuously improve the company's financial health. We will also continue to take advantage of skilled advisors at the company's disposal, including adapting our Board of Directors to take full advantage of their combined skills as the company transitions to new areas of growth post IPO. I believe that by concentrating on our mission of improving pet lives and sharing equity broadly with our teams we can simultaneously show relentless focus on execution within our businesses' performance as we unlock Inspire's full potential.
Among the 2024 focus areas for our teams are improvements to leadership at all levels, targets focused on clinic productivity and coaching on efficiency as we increase our flow through in all of our locations. The first quarter of 2024 provided some early indicators of improvement and we achieved improved YOY earnings at hospital level. Cost of goods and labor metrics have shown improvement during the first half of 2024 with purchasing discipline being greatly improved in our clinics via coaching by our field leaders and our enterprise beginning to leverage re-negotiated vendor contracts which benefit from IVPs growing size. Simultaneously, labor savings have resulted from more accurate scheduling and budgeting at each of IVPs locations. Improvements in these key cost areas have allowed the company to outpace our prior year's earnings at clinic level and this focus on profitability will continue to improve as the company continues to work on top line revenue growth for the balance of the year. As progress continues with our existing portfolio, we are excited about plans to return to expansion in the back half of 2024 through hospital acquisitions and new business integrations by targeting single unit acquisitions and the potential for multi-unit integrations as well.
The company's continuous improvement must be driven by its talented and passionate people. In that regard, Inspire invested early in our professionals, even prior to our IPO. We built one of the most comprehensive benefits packages in our industry as a means to ensure the health and wellbeing of our workforce was at the forefront of what we do. We also designed an Employee Stock Option Program which we are excited to launch in the near future. This kind of equity offering will be the first of its kind in our industry and demonstrates Inspire's aim to change how veterinary professionals are rewarded and compensated. Put simply, IVP was founded on the idea that more reward should be had by the teams which help our company grow and we believe these kinds of programs are the right way to retain the best talent in the veterinary industry. Investments like these were implemented early as Inspire needed to attract and retain the best talent in order to fuel our growth. We continue to be focused on results which must improve and be sustained so that the company sees a return for its investment in its people.
Looking ahead, our strategic priorities are clear, and we have the right team to execute our plans effectively. Our operations are improving, and our balance sheet has been strengthened with our recently completed public offering, providing us with a better foundation for future growth and market position.
We value your trust and are committed to maintaining transparent communication with you. We can work together to achieve our common goals by keeping you informed and engaged. Our plan is to report our second quarter 2024 financial results and hold our first annual meeting later in the Fall. We are excited about the future and look forward to sharing our success.
Any shareholder who is interested in learning more about our veterinary hospital business should visit our website at www.inspirevet.com or contact our investor relations representative Kevin McGrath of TraDigital IR at 646.418.7002 for more detailed information.
On behalf of the Board of Directors,
Kimball Carr
CEO & President
About Inspire Veterinary Partners, Inc.
Inspire Veterinary Partners is an owner/operator of veterinary hospitals in the US. As the Company expands, it expects to acquire additional veterinary hospitals, including general practice, mixed animal facilities, and critical and emergency care.
This press release contains forward-looking statements regarding the Company's current expectations. These statements are not guarantees of future performance and are subject to certain risks, uncertainties and assumptions that are difficult to predict. Factors that could cause actual results to differ include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties related to the satisfaction of customary closing conditions related to anticipated acquisitions, or factors that result in changes to the Company's anticipated results of operations related to acquisitions. These and other risks and uncertainties are described more fully in the section captioned "Risk Factors" in the Company's Registration Statements on Form S-1 filed with the SEC. Forward-looking statements contained in this announcement are made as of this date, and the Company undertakes no duty to update such information except as required under applicable law.
