The Animal Health Industry Is Restructuring. Are Your Marketing Teams Still Running Last Year's Growth Playbook?
- Renea Lewis
- Jun 1
- 8 min read
How Chewy's vertical integration, manufacturer DTC pivots, and distributor consolidation are reshaping the animal health supply chain — and what it means for every marketing leader in this industry right now.
Renea Lewis, Founder & Principal Strategist, WriterRenea Multimedia — Fractional Marketing & Communications Collabs
If your marketing team is executing the same strategy it built eighteen months ago — same channel priorities, same
rep-driven model, same trade show calendar, same distributor relationships — this piece is for you.
Not because the strategy was wrong. Because the channel it was built for is restructuring underneath right now.
I have this conversation constantly with marketing leaders across animal health — manufacturers, distributors, corporate vet groups. Smart people. Resourced teams. And a growing sense that the results aren't matching the effort.
They're right. Here's why — with the numbers
Fire 1: Chewy Is No Longer a Simple Retailer
In fiscal year 2024, Chewy reported $11.86 billion in net sales — growing 6.4% year over year — with 21.3 million active customers.1 That alone is not the story.
This is: Autoship subscriptions now represent 83% of Chewy's total net sales.2 83 cents of every dollar Chewy earns comes from a subscription relationship that was built outside the traditional vet-channel purchasing decision. Not through a rep. Not through a distributor. Not through a practice recommendation. Through a recurring order that shows up at the door before the pet owner ever has to think about it again. And then Chewy started opening veterinary clinics. In 2024, they launched Chewy Vet Care, opening 18 locations across five states.3 In April 2026, they announced a definitive agreement to acquire Modern Animal — a tech-forward veterinary platform with 29 owned clinics, 24/7 virtual care, and a high-retention membership model. The acquisition would instantly scale Chewy Vet Care's footprint from 18 to 47 locations nationwide and add over $125 million in annualized revenue.4
Chewy's CEO described the strategy in plain terms: building "a fully integrated pet healthcare ecosystem, combining care, commerce and services across the pet lifecycle."4
Not a pet supply company. A healthcare ecosystem. The vet channel isn't just competing with Chewy for the product sale anymore. It's competing with Chewy for the entire client relationship. The question is no longer whether this is a threat to the veterinary channel. The question is whether your organization has a communication strategy built for a world where it's also your competitor's front door.
Fire 2: Manufacturers Are Going Direct — And Distributors Are Watching
This one is in the investor filings, if you know where to look.
Elanco's 2025 investor materials cite NielsenIQ research showing subscription sales now account for 40% of pet care dollars — and McKinsey research showing omnichannel consumers spend 30% more annually than single-channel shoppers.5
Their stated strategic response: an explicit omnichannel approach built on "meeting modern pet owners where, when,
and how they choose to engage.".5 That's a major animal health manufacturer publicly announcing it is building channels that route around its traditional distributor relationships.
And Elanco is not the only one. Across the industry, manufacturers are building or acquiring direct-to-consumer capabilities, subscription platforms, and e-commerce infrastructure. The math is simple: omnichannel consumers spend more, and manufacturers want access to that relationship.
The distributors who have built their businesses on being the essential middle layer are watching this happen in public. They're navigating it inside organizations designed for a different model. And most of them are doing it without a communications strategy that clearly articulates why the channel still matters — to manufacturers, to practices, and to the pet owners both are trying to reach.
That's the gap.
Fire 3: Distributor Consolidation Is Itself the Signal
On February 18, 2026, Covetrus and MWI Animal Health announced a $3.5 billion merger.6 Pending regulatory approval, that deal will leave the United States with two national distributors of veterinary pharmaceuticals, equipment, and supplies. VIN News confirmed it plainly: the merger "will reduce to two the number of nationwide distributors."7
Two.
An industry that once had many does not consolidate into two out of strength. In my view, consolidation at this scale signals structural pressure to modernize their growth strategy — to adapt to the direct-to-consumer shift and emerge with a stronger, more competitive market position. The merger is not just news. It is a data point about the state of the channel. When the infrastructure of an industry consolidates this aggressively, the marketing strategy conversation — for every organization inside that channel — is not optional. It's existential.
And Underneath All Three: A Purchasing Power Shift That Changes the Math
Corporate groups and private equity now control between 30% and 50% of all veterinary practices in the United States — up from less than 10% just over a decade ago.8 For specialty and emergency practices, that number climbs above 75%.9 Consolidators already account for nearly 50% of all companion animal practice revenues according to Brakke Consulting — and they acquired 500 independent practices in 2023 alone.10
The marketing playbook that worked practice by practice — one rep, one relationship, one location at a time — does not function in a world where a single purchasing decision at Banfield, NVA, or Thrive propagates across hundreds or thousands of locations simultaneously.
If you're a manufacturer, this is your formulary strategy.
If you're a distributor, this is your contract leverage.
If you're a corporate vet group, this is your brand architecture problem.
Same structural shift. Three completely different communications implications.
Where Most Marketing Teams Get Stuck
I've spent the better part of my career at this intersection — inside animal health distribution at Henry Schein Animal Health, with a regional veterinary ER and specialty hospital group, and directly with a Chief Veterinary Officer for a life sciences publisher —building growth strategy and communication infrastructure across an evolving industry.
What I consistently see across manufacturer, distributor, and corporate vet group marketing teams is a version of the same thing:
They are doing the things they've always done.
Product launches. Trade shows. Rep enablement. Campaign execution. Field support.
And the results are flattening — the structural context around them has changed. The rep visits a practice that's now part of a 400-location corporate group with centralized purchasing. The launch goes to a distributor that's in the middle of a $3.5 billion merger. The campaign runs in a market where Chewy has already built a subscription relationship with the same pet owner the manufacturer is trying to reach.
Same tactics. Different environment. Different results. The organizations that are pulling ahead right now are ones who built the communication infrastructure to operate inside a disrupted channel.
Five Root Causes Behind the Communications Gap in Animal Health Marketing
Across the manufacturer, distributor, and corporate vet group organizations I work with, the gap almost always comes from one or more of these:
No defined communication architecture. Teams are told to grow, retain, or differentiate — but no one has defined what that actually looks like across every audience touchpoint the channel now involves.
Brand narratives that don't reach the right audiences. What's written in the marketing deck rarely shows up the same way in the rep conversation, the corporate group pitch, or the DVM's 10pm research session.
Communication built for one channel in a multi-channel world. Rep-driven, trade show-driven, distributor-driven models were built for a channel that is structurally changing. The content architecture that supports DVMs, corporate purchasing teams, and direct pet owners simultaneously hasn't been built.
No thought leadership presence in the spaces the field can't reach. The DVM researching products at night. The corporate vet group's procurement team building a formulary. The pet owner comparing options on their phone. These are moments the rep cannot be in. Most animal health marketing teams have built almost nothing for them.
No visibility into where the communication is breaking. Leadership feels the flatness in the numbers but can't see where the message is getting lost — between the manufacturer and the distributor, between the distributor and the practice, between the practice and the pet owner.
What This Requires Now
The organizations that come out of this disruption with market share and channel loyalty intact will not be the ones who reacted fastest. They'll be the ones who treated marketing growth and communications strategy as infrastructure — not as a cost center, not as a campaign calendar, not as something to build after the dust settles.
Because the dust is not going to settle. This is the new structure of the industry.
That means building:
→ The thought leadership ecosystem that reaches DVMs in the spaces your reps can't.
→ The brand architecture that works at the corporate vet group level, not just the individual practice.
→ The content infrastructure that supports omnichannel distribution without losing the vet channel relationship.
→ The communication framework that tells your story clearly and consistently — to manufacturers, practices, distributors, and pet owners — across a channel that no longer moves in a straight line.
This is not a marketing refresh. It is a communication architectural rebuild for a restructured industry. The window to build this infrastructure before it becomes an obvious crisis is closing. The organizations that start now will own the ground everyone else is scrambling to recover.
THE ROGUE RIFFS
Rogue Riff #1: This isn't a distribution problem — it's a relationship problem. When 83% of Chewy's revenue comes from subscriptions, the vet supply channel isn't losing a sale. It's losing a relationship before the pet owner ever walks through the door.
Rogue Riff #2: Distributor consolidation is not a logistics story. It's a communications story. The merger of two major distributors doesn't just change how products move. It changes what every manufacturer and practice needs to hear about why the channel still matters — and who's telling that story clearly right now.
Rogue Riff #3: The rep can open the door. Communication infrastructure determines what's waiting inside it. In a world where corporate vet groups control 50% of companion animal revenues and Chewy has 21 million active customers, the field team alone is not enough. The organizations that build the content, thought leadership, and communication architecture behind the rep are the ones that win the recommendation. That's the new growth strategy. |
IF THIS DESCRIBES YOUR ORGANIZATION If you're leading marketing growth and communications strategy inside an animal health manufacturer, distributor, or corporate veterinary group — and the three fires I described are burning inside your organization right now — this is where the conversation starts.
Book a free 30-minute strategy call.
WriterReneaMultimedia.com | Fractional Marketing & Communications Collabs Rogue Riffs by WriterRenea: Sharp takes on media, business, and humanity. Because in an industry being restructured by DTC subscription commerce, vertical integration, and consolidation — silence isn't a strategy. The organizations that communicate their way through this disruption will own what's left of it. Like this article? Editorial writing and commissioned thought leadership for animal health, healthcare, and life sciences organizations is part of what we do at WriterRenea Multimedia. WriterReneaMultimedia.com |
REFERENCES
1. Chewy, Inc. Fiscal Year 2024 Full Year Financial Results. Form 8-K filed March 26, 2025. investor.chewy.com
2. Chewy, Inc. Q2 Fiscal 2025 Earnings Release. September 10, 2025. "Autoship customer net sales representing 83% of total net sales." investor.chewy.com
3. AVMA News. "Chewy expands clinic ownership with Modern Animal purchase." April 29, 2026. avma.org
4. Chewy, Inc. Press Release. "Chewy to Acquire Modern Animal." April 8, 2026. investor.chewy.com
5. Elanco Animal Health. DEF 14A Proxy Statement FY2025. Citing NielsenIQ and McKinsey research. sec.gov
6. Covetrus / Cencora Joint Press Release. "Covetrus and MWI Animal Health to Merge." February 18, 2026. covetrus.com
7. VIN News Service. "Covetrus and MWI Animal Health plan to merge." February 19, 2026. news.vin.com
8. American Economic Liberties Project, June 2025. economicliberties.us; Private Equity Vet 2024 report. privateequityvet.org
9. AAHA Trends Magazine. "Corporate consolidation and the rise of private equity." February 2025. aaha.org
10. CARE for Pets / Brakke Consulting. "Corporate Consolidator Ownership of Veterinary Practices." pets.care
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