At National Bed Care, he built his business model around corporate-backed acquisitions and clinic performance improvement. He has emulated this model in other industries, Ongoing ventures National Optical Care – His latest technology investments are aimed at improving efficiency in different sectors of the veterinary market.
The sector faces structural challenges as consumers increasingly shift to purchasing pet supplies online, reducing retail opportunities and sales margins for clinics, along with staffing shortages, making it harder for veterinarians to devote more time than ever to administration, marketing, managing their business and, most importantly, treating animals.
“This is the perfect time for us to step in. We've launched VetXtend, a B2B (business-to-business) brand. We want to be an extension of veterinary clinics and help them get through these difficult times,” said Stinackers, a former veterinarian. Australian Young Entrepreneur of the Year,tell business news australia.
“What happened with corporations has evolved. It was a very good starting point for understanding the market, but the reality is that 500 of the 3,000 clinics are corporate-owned, and there is still a ton of independent clinics, which is great. 40% of these independent clinics are too small to be acquired by corporations. Corporations won't acquire a clinic under $1.2 million, and they struggle with succession planning.
“What we've done is take some of the tools we used at the corporate level and make them available to independent veterans so they can have a competitive edge and spend more time on what's important to their business. Plus, they can earn passive income every month from recommending us on the retail side.”
Stinackers came up with the business concept several years ago and developed the plan with the help of former NVC executives, including CMO Paula Sadler.
“We've also developed the ability to connect to practice management systems and financial systems. First of all, it gives patients a great dashboard with a lot of valuable information about how their practice is progressing, what they need to improve, and what they need to stop doing,” he says.
“For example, Paula and I can show them that selling bags of food is probably not profitable anymore and that they should focus on specialist services such as dentistry, x-rays and surgery.
The group has also launched e-commerce brand YourPetPA, in conjunction with its VetXtend brand, which sells a wide range of retail products for pets along with an online pharmacy, and Thriving Pets wellness plan, targeted at both pet owners and veterinarians with the aim of improving pet owner compliance.
“When a clinic refers us to a bag of food, we can get it to the patient faster, better and cheaper, and we share in the cost of that bag of food so we get a cut of the revenue,” Stienackers explains.
“You can do a lot of reminders and education campaigns about why they should return to the vet for dental care or to buy certain products,” he added.
“We also get to follow our clients through their developmental stages, something vets never have time for. Veterinary clinics are severely short on food when clients with puppies buy a food that was perfect for them when they were puppies, but know they'll need to change their food when they become teenagers or seniors.”
Mr Sadler said the group, which is based on the Gold Coast and operates across Australia and the Tasman Sea, was currently rolling out between five and 10 clinics per week.
“The independent practitioners have been very positive about it because it gives them back the financial benefit and all of the expertise we've developed and all of the know-how we have,” Sadler says.
“We've been able to build a technology stack and a platform and create a program that's a win-win. The win for them is money and time. The win for us is we can reach pet owners in a very cost-effective way, because it's a very competitive space and we've carved out a niche for ourselves.”
Sadler added that she and Stinackers already had active contacts in the industry and their existing reputations would have made it easier to secure clients.
“For me, it's all about the details and the service we provide to people. We're a small, agile business so even though we're growing fast, we know who our customers are and the real people behind them,” she says.
“And we have an interest in making a difference for them as well.”
Stinackers said there were currently 130 dental practices using the service, with Australia's largest dental company owning around 270 practices.
“Within the past few months we’ve been able to bring on board https://www.businessnewsaustralia.com/130 clinics and over the next https://www.businessnewsaustralia.com/12 to https://www.businessnewsaustralia.com/18 months we expect the number of clinics to be around 200 to 300,” he says.
“We know we have an estimated 400,000 to 500,000 pet owners to talk to, so we're becoming pretty proactive as an educational platform where we can talk to people.
“If we eventually scale to 300 clinics, that would mean 1.2 million customers, which is pretty big. On an e-commerce platform, that's very hard to achieve.”
But the business case goes beyond saving vets time and giving VetXtend access to its own customer base: Steenackers says it's also about re-engaging with patients.
“We have a lot of patients who haven't seen a vet in 15 months, and we can help re-engage them, first and foremost, so they can return to vet care, and then PetPA and Pet Pharmacy can help meet their needs,” he says.
“I think that’s where this model becomes really valuable for all involved.
“When we send emails to customers on behalf of veterinarians, we have pretty high open rates of 40 to 50 percent and conversion rates of 3 to 5 percent, so that tells us how relevant we are to consumers, otherwise people wouldn't open the emails and take action.”
Stienackers said that while the e-commerce platform has technically been operational for 18 months, overall business has only really surged recently with the official launch of its VetXtend service, after it raised $1.6 million in January to continue research and development (R&D) and ensure the system delivers the best results for clients.
“We are currently exploring and evaluating several potential acquisitions to continue our growth over the next 12 months,” he added.
“Secondly, we want to keep our team small to make sure we're really relevant to them. Once we have 400-500 clinics and a good platform, the next typical move would be to the US and UK markets, which are similar.”
