Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 30 June 2023
Our Business Model
Our products improve animal health and welfare. Our customer support, educational and training programmes help to inform and educate veterinarians around the globe to further improve animal health and welfare.
We Operate Across the Entire Animal Health Value Chain
Our objectives are to innovate, develop, register, manufacture, supply and market high quality products to the veterinary profession worldwide. We also offer high levels of service, technical support and educational training to promote the Dechra brand and to develop a strong relationship with, and be recognised as an important partner to, veterinarians worldwide.
Our Key Assets and Resources
Values and Culture
As a relatively small business in a very large market, the agile and entrepreneurial way in which we run the business gives us a competitive edge against companies several times larger than ourselves.
Technology
We are increasingly investing in technology to underpin our future growth aspirations. Embracing new technologies also extends to the way in which we engage with our end customer, the veterinarian.
The Best People
From research and development teams through to the sales representatives who educate veterinarians on the clinical benefits of our products, we believe we have the very best in the industry.
Financial Discipline
Our high profit margins and strong cash generation allow us to pay down debt quickly, resulting in a robust balance sheet. This enables us to adhere to our capital allocation policy by investing in organic growth, paying a dividend and pursuing opportunistic acquisitions.
Sustainable Mindset
We are a Purpose driven organisation, and this long term, sustainable way of thinking extends across the Group. We have made significant progress over recent years in developing an ambitious Sustainability strategy, increasing awareness within the business and driving genuine change.
Veterinary professionals
109,691
Dechra Academy users
People
602
New employees
Suppliers
15
Number of quality audits
Shareholders
3,471%
Total shareholder return from IPO to 12 April 2023
Communities
£432k
Cash donations
Environment
13%
Reduction in GHG emissions intensity ratio
Our Impact and Value Creation
Our Key Activities
Our development pipeline is spread across novel entities, differentiated generics, generics and lifecycle management projects in all species
How Ideas are Generated:
- regular cross functional meetings where all senior staff are encouraged to bring new ideas from their experience in the marketplace.
- networking with key opinion leaders, especially in our focus therapeutic areas, to identify and develop ideas.
- our talented veterinary scientists extensively screen scientific papers looking for new human medicinerelated technologies that might have an application in animal health.
Innovative Products that Treat a Range of Conditions
A number of our key products are novel or have clear advantages over competitor products. This allows veterinarians to offer a high standard of care to animals that they treat and positions Dechra as a market leader within our chosen therapeutic areas.
In-house Product Development vs External Partnership
Our R&D laboratories are located at our manufacturing sites, allowing us to emulate the manufacturing processes and making the in-house R&D cycle more effective. In addition, we also pursue opportunities to partner with select third parties to develop new products in areas where we do not necessarily have the required expertise.
Global Registration Process
Once all the studies are concluded, if the product reaches the required safety, efficacy and stable chemical formula, regulatory dossiers are prepared for registration and filing with the relevant regulatory authorities. This is an ongoing process in territories where we already hold marketing authorisations and also new international markets we are looking to enter.
The principal objective of our Manufacturing & Supply division is to deliver safe, efficacious, cost effective, high quality products on time and in full every time. Batch runs for veterinary medicines are often relatively small compared to human medicines, making manufacturing a key competency of the Group and an important barrier to entry.
Our Range of Competencies
We have a wide range of competencies across our eight manufacturing sites including tablets, creams, liquids, ointments, powders, vaccines and sterile injections that can be packed in a multitude of different presentations.
In-house vs Third Party Manufacturing
We currently manufacture around 50% of our products in-house. To complement our in-house production, we also have a network of third party Contract Manufacturing Organisations (CMOs) that is an important part of our business. This network is utilised where there are competencies and dosage forms that we do not have, or where we have long term agreements that prevent in-house manufacturing of some products. However, we have a long term strategy to migrate more products into our own production facilities through an ongoing process of technical transfers.
An International Supply Chain
Our European and International markets are serviced from our own logistics facilities based in Uldum, Denmark, and Somersby, Australia. North America and Brazil are supplied out of third party logistics providers.
Our products are distributed from our major logistics sites via wholesalers, distributors or direct supply.
Specialised Veterinary Wholesalers
The majority of veterinary practices worldwide are supplied through specialised veterinary wholesalers that operate as one-stop shops. They stock the majority of items veterinary practices need such as pharmaceuticals, equipment and consumables, and offer high levels of service, often with a next day delivery. These wholesalers are generally passive in selling product; they predominantly supply to demand where the demand is driven by Dechra’s own sales activities within veterinary practices.
As such, although our customer is the veterinarian, in most major markets it is the wholesaler who we actually generate direct revenue from.
International Distribution Partners
We have a presence in 62 countries where we do not have our own sales and marketing organisation and instead sell through international distribution partners. This network provides a valuable entry point to emerging markets where we look to establish a presence.
Country Specific Exceptions
There are a few markets, such as Germany and the Netherlands, that are not fully supported by veterinary wholesalers and where we therefore offer direct supply.
There are also some instances where legislation enforces all pharmaceuticals to be sold through pharmacies, such as Denmark, Italy, Norway and Sweden.
Our customers are veterinary professionals operating in veterinary practices and major farming units. It is they who our products and sales and marketing activities are mainly targeted at, and is why the Dechra brand is deliberately positioned as ‘The Veterinary Perspective’.
The majority of veterinarians prescribe and dispense pharmaceuticals, although there are a few territories in the world where the veterinarian writes a prescription and the drugs are purchased by the animal owner at a pharmacy.
The majority of our products are prescription only medicines (POMs); however, we also have a range of complementary non-prescription products. Our product range includes novel, generic-plus (or differentiated generic) and generic products in key therapeutic areas, in particular endocrinology and anaesthesia and analgesia.
Our relationship with veterinarians is crucial and, to this end, we provide added value services to complement our broad product portfolio. Our customer channels involve our telephone sales representatives, field based representatives, educational programmes and technical support programmes.
Sales Representatives
Dechra operates its own sales force and provides in-house marketing and technical support in 26 countries, predominantly in Europe, North America, Brazil and ANZ. In all of these countries we have highly skilled field based representatives who make regular calls to all major veterinary practices. The representatives’ brief is to sell the product on a technical basis, outlining the beneficial aspects of our products and to provide educational support on how best to treat animals in our key therapeutic areas.
Customer Support
We also provide high levels of technical support and pharmacovigilance through helplines in every country in which we operate. These helplines provide veterinarians with support on how to best use our products and free advice on any difficult or complex cases that may be encountered.
Educational and Training Programmes
We offer high level educational programmes focused on the diagnosis and treatment of conditions in our key therapeutic areas. We deliver this education through many channels, including major conferences, regional groups, individual practices and increasingly through digital channels.
We help to improve the knowledge and education of veterinarians. These programmes are certified to offer veterinarians and veterinary nurses the continuing professional development hours they require to maintain their professional qualification.
Our Key Strengths
We have a number of key strengths that supplement our business model, support the delivery of our strategy and help us to impact animal health and welfare globally.
1
Well Recognised BrandWe are recognised as a global animal health company with a strong and growing reputation as a provider of high quality, specialist veterinary medicines and related products in our chosen therapeutic areas. This has been underpinned further this year by the launch of our new brand positioning, the Veterinary Perspective.
2
Breadth of ProductsWe are a global leader in veterinary endocrinology and topical dermatology and have a broad portfolio of analgesia, anaesthetics and products for the treatment of pain. We are also recognised as innovators in other specialisations such as the treatment of equine lameness and specialist nutrition. We have a highly diversified portfolio covering novel, generic and generic plus products that are typically non-discretionary prescription only medicines.
3
Weighting Towards CAP and InnovationAlthough we have a presence across different product categories, we are deliberately focused on bringing innovation to the higher margin CAP market that is proven to be highly resilient and set to benefit from numerous long term structural growth drivers.
4
Strong Industry RelationshipsOur relationships with all key stakeholders are very important to the Group. Our sales approach revolves around partnership with key practice groups, individual veterinarians, key opinion leaders and distributors. Furthermore, our networking within the industry is a key driver in finding new product development and acquisition opportunities. We also have an important network of third party CMOs who produce around half of all our products.
5
Successful Acquisition HistoryIn January 2008 we made our first major acquisition which, at the time, was transformational to our EU Pharmaceuticals business. We have successfully replicated the model since then on several occasions and have consistently delivered pre-acquisition strategic and financial expectations on significant transactions.
