The Pet Vet are winners of the Best National Small Business award at the 2025 Business Awards UK

According to Business Awards UK, this is an accolade for the small business that has achieved national success, and recognises the company’s growth, innovation, and influence across the United Kingdom.

The Pet Vet was founded in Doncaster in 2011 by Chairman & Founder Dr Rob Jones MRCVS, who is still heavily involved in the business today. The Pet Vet has since grown to a nationwide group of 12 surgeries, with additional Yorkshire locations including Rotherham and Barnsley.

Dr Mel Fuller, CEO, says: “We’re thrilled that The Pet Vet has been recognised with this award! It’s testament to all the hard-working, talented and exceptionally passionate clinical and non-clinical colleagues we have within our 12 surgeries and Central Services Unit. We know that if we give our teams the resources and support to thrive at work, our customers and their pets will receive the best care; so my job is to make that happen.”

We created the concept of centres of excellence, to offer advanced services as well as first opinion provision in the same location. This enables the pets in our care to receive more in-house diagnostics and treatment, reducing the cost, inconvenience and stress of external referral. Our centres of excellence have also been hugely successful in increasing colleague engagement and retention because colleagues have the opportunity to advance their skills, experience increased variety and complexity of cases, and progress their careers without having to move to a different employer – and this provides fantastic continuity of care for our pets.

As part of the investment programme, at every surgery we’ve installed ultrasonography, an in-house laboratory and dentistry equipment (including dental x-ray). And in locations with specific clinical interests of the Vets and Nurses, we’ve introduced orthopaedic and complex soft tissue surgery, CT scanning & interpretation, cardiology, endoscopy, and ophthalmology and exotics services.

We’ve also innovatively designed our surgeries, with careful consideration to minimise stress for pets throughout their journey, provide a welcoming and reassuring experience for customers, and create a thriving workplace environment for The Pet Vet colleagues. We’ve recently moved to deskless reception areas, so that customers receive a personalised check-in & check-out service, and phones are answered away from the reception area. We hadn’t quite appreciated the extent of the impact of no phones and no queues – it’s been amazing!

With anxious and very poorly patients in mind, or for customers who struggle to travel, we introduced Pet Care @ Home – providing a range of treatments and services in the comfort of customers’ own homes. From de-matting to euthanasia, we can provide a personalised Vet or Nurse service.

Our Nurses are also instrumental in our in-house provision, gaining advanced skills and post graduate qualifications in areas of interest to them. This means that we can now offer nurse surgery days, pet behaviour consults, bereavement counselling, with more services to follow soon.

For our colleagues to bring the best of themselves to work, they need to have a fulfilled life away from The Pet Vet. So we support flexible, remote and hybrid working; we’re committed to consistent work patterns; we reward long service with additional holidays; and we support colleagues with sabbaticals to achieve their life goals. We also offer 1 colleague per year the opportunity for a fully funded overseas volunteering experience, with Greece and Fiji being the most recent locations.

These are just a few of the factors that were taken into consideration as part of the judging process. We’re very much looking forward to proudly display our winner's trophy in our Rotherham surgery!

The Pet Vet are currently accepting new registrations and encourage anyone in South Yorkshire looking for exceptional veterinary care to register today by visiting thepetvet.co.uk.