Intervet
Intervet UK Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of AKZO Nobel NV, a Dutch conglomerate having a turnover of about DFl23 billion (approximately £7.6 billion or US$12 billion). Its interests are diverse and include the manufacture of drugs, contraceptive products, pharmaceuticals, vaccines and dangerous chemicals. Intervet is a member of NOAH.
In the UK, Intervet claims to be the largest supplier of vaccines and is heavily reliant on the practice of annual vaccination to make profits.
Intervet is the UK's leading veterinary vaccine manufacturer. The following information is based on the Director's report and accounts for the year ended 31 December 1997 of Intervet UK Ltd.:
| Year ended 31/12/97 | Change on 1996 | |
| Sales | £34,052,000 | 13.70% |
| Gross Profit | £17,078,000 | 53.70% |
| Net operating profit | £10,930,000 | 102.70% |
| Dividends paid | £6,600,000 | 78.30% |
| Net assets | £5,481,000 | |
| Return on capital employed | 199.4% | |
| Sales & distribution employees | 52 | |
| Research etc.. employees | 27 |
Of the £34 million annual sales, sales in the U.K. amounted to £27.9 million. The company achieved an astonishing 199% return on net assets employed (ROC), which compares very favourably against the 16% ROC achieved by the most profitable British banks. Indeed, Intervet notched up a performance that was more than 12 times better than the best of UK banks! Furthermore it receiveda net £98,000 for research and development i.e. it sold more of its R&D resources than it spent on research, and it employs significantly more sales and marketing people than it does researchers.
The company paid its parent £6.6 million in share dividends, up 78% on the previous year. This represents a return on the parent's share holding investment of 181% per year, which compares very favourably with what you get in interest at your local building society (savings & loan company). The net operating profit was up more than 100% on the previous year at nearly £11 million, which is about 32% of its sales. Very few companies in the U.K. achieve anything like these figures.
The company's overheads amounted to £6,148,000 for 1997. We estimate that around 90% of annual sales would come from boosters if animals are vaccinated each year until they are ten years of age. Expressed another way, probably only 10% of gross profits comes from initial vaccination - about £1,708,000, which is approximately 28% of its operational costs (overheads). So rather than making a profit of around £11 million, Intervet is likely to lose around £4 million each year if you don't help them out and vaccinate your pets annually!
So you can see that annual pet vaccination is a financial decision not a matter of medical necessity. For more information