PETS V FOR VIOVET
Did you know you can now order your pet’s prescription medication online? Out In The City looks at the background to VioVet…
Despite stuggling with dyslexia when younger, computer whiz Luke Cousins has become quite the precocious entrepreneur. At 12 he off ered holiday care for pets in his parent’s back garden; at 13 he was selling mobile phone covers on e-Bay; and at 16 he started an on-line company selling pet medications. VioVet (
www.viovet.co.uk) now dispatches over 4,000 orders a week, turned over £6.5m last year and is seeing 1,500 new customers register each week as pet owners look to source cheaper pet medication and pet food. Luke, now 21, said, “I started out literally at the kitchen table at home, designing the website and writing the computer programmes for ordering and then packing the boxes and taking them to the post offi ce. The business has grown quite quickly!”
VioVet’s Luke Cousins HEALTH
It helped that Luke’s parents, Sharon and John, had their own veterinary practice outside St Albans and the family knew about a change in the law allowing pet owners to take a vet’s prescription to someone other than the prescriber.
LEGAL
Luke said, “I saw it as a great opportunity and a way of providing the same level of expertise and knowledge but at the same time saving pet owners a lot of money.”
Anyone who has a pet will know that the cost of treatment can be crippling but many are unaware that they now have the freedom to send a prescription for treatment to a fi rm like VioVet, who will then dispatch the drugs often at a fraction of the cost. Luke said, “Prices are typically 30-50% cheaper, which is a substantial saving if your animal needs long-term medication for something like arthritis or diabetes.” VioVet (the name comes from father John’s old car registration plate – V10 VET) is now based in a 13,000sq foot warehouse near the family home in Hertfordshire, and unlike other on-line fi rms, they encourage customer interaction with a busy Facebook page and off er an advice phone line. The company now stocks 20,000 diff erent product lines, everything from fl ea treatments and worming tablets to gourmet pet food and pet toys.
COUNSELLING
who understands
Specialist therapy for Gender
Therapist Directory
Self Help Videos Training for Therapists
56
WWW.OUTMAG.CO.UK
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68