Thank you very much, Andy, and thank you to anyone who's joining us live this evening, particularly because I think that England's lionesses, have just kicked off in Lyon. So if you hear any loud roars in the background, I assume it's because we've scored, and you'll be celebrating with me. So, the topic I'm going to talk about this evening is building a sustainable brand.

And if I'd have been talking to you about this 10 years ago, maybe even 5 years ago, the content would have been very different. And we would have been focusing on sustainability in the sense of long-lasting businesses and long-lasting brands. And of course, that's still very important.

But sustainability in all of its meanings has become ever more important, over recent years, for you, for your team, for your customers, and for our planet. And so it's a far wider topic than, it would have been a little while ago. So let's get started.

As Andy said, I'm simply house first ever chief customer officer, so my role is to start everything that we think about from the perspective of our customers. So let's start thinking about the world that our customers are living in. Firstly, sorry there, the, We should say that the world everybody is living in is increasingly digital.

Now, of course, not everything that we do is digital, and when you are in the surgery with your pet owners and with the animals that you're looking after, that face to face connection is incredibly important and will continue to be a really important role, in the way that you build your brand and your practise. But in so many other walks of our life, our expectations are being driven by the digital interactions that we have. And by the way that those digital interactions are making it easier and easier for us to connect with each other, to connect with issues globally, and to impact our beliefs about society.

That's changing at a pace that it's hard for businesses, traditional businesses to respond to sometimes, and it can seem very, very challenging, but it also presents some real opportunities. Within the context of that digital world, there are any number of other macro issues which are increasingly driving customers' expectations of the businesses, that they give their money to and in the cases of vets and trust, some of their most loved, family members to. So let's just think about three of them.

The first is the environment, and I probably don't need to, preach to any of you on, listening to the webinar about the importance of that. And in the week when David Attenborough managed to feature on the main stage at Glastonbury, I think we can truly say that environmental concerns have gone mainstream. We know the threats that global warming or plastic pollution, carry for our population and our planet.

And as the population grow, the issues that come with that also grow, and there are many more to come. And I'm sure more than anyone else, you'll be aware of the links between environmental health, human health, and animal health. So it's a massive issue for, veterinary practises to consider.

Beyond that, there are major trends assuming affecting health, whether that is, population health or animal health, and as populations of all kinds increase and come under ever greater pressures, the health issues attached to those are a huge issue, the farmer alone simply can't fix, and I think we all have a rising understanding that lifestyle has an increasingly big impact on health, and some of us are consumers are starting to change our behaviours accordingly. I've been to the GP this afternoon and we had an informed conversation about antibiotics. A few years ago, I would have been pushing for antibiotics.

Now I understand that not over providing antibiotics and taking them, just because they might make me feel a little better from a placebo effect is a really bad thing to do. And, there's also been a lot of coverage recently around how that's impacting people's attitudes to vaccinations, for example, and generally a sense that we're losing trust in farmers the solutions to, many of the health issues that we face. And consumers are increasingly also understanding that health is, something that they need to engage actively with, and never is that more true than in the health of their animals, which in many cases they are already taking more seriously than, their own health based on the research that we've done at Century Health.

And of course, there are also social implications of all of this. So we have growing populations, often populations that are less healthy, environmental crises threatening us, and many social crises are also coming to the surface, often manifesting themselves in forms of loneliness, ageing populations with increasingly chronic health conditions, and mental illness challenges that were increasing. Aware of.

And again, as a population of vets, you'll be very aware of the strong link between pet ownership and mental well-being, and it's one of the key things that, our pet owners talk to us about, when we're in research groups for them. So there is a lot going on in the world around us, and this is forming, customers' opinions and expectations, things that wouldn't have been on their mind when they were making purchasing decisions just a few years ago. So what does that mean for business?

And I'm going to talk about business more generally before we turn to, to, vets, as a, as a sector. Well, business is starting to respond to changing customer attitudes, behaviours and needs because it's the right thing to do, but also because there is a very strong business case to do it. So just some examples of that.

In the environmental space, supermarkets leading the way on reducing use of single-use packaging, and you'll have seen stories such as Waitrose trialling, almost a plastic-free store in Oxford responding to customers' demands that, we can bring our own packaging and recycle that. Boots have just announced that they're transitioning to paper bags. They're moving beyond the government requirements to charge for single-use plastic bags to actually anticipate consumer demand and move away from plastics altogether.

And it's not just retailers. And you mentioned that I have a strong background in airlines, which, have a number of quite significant challenges around building sustainable futures. .

Pollution is the one which probably springs most to mind, but actually, if you think about the contents of your average aeroplane when you go on holiday, there is an awful lot of single-use plastic on board, and there are airlines who are now trialling abolishing all of that single-use plastic on board their planes. Although we should note that it's hard, and consumers will absolutely hold you to account for keeping the promises that you make, and, are very quick to see through artificial promises and marketing gimmicks. Other, other ways in which these changes are manifesting themselves would be the rise of, veganism and the reduction in the quantity of meat that we eat and the number of businesses that are looking to build business models out of responding to that, as an issue.

So, you can see a number of examples there of how a range of businesses are responding to environmental issues, both to, have a better impact on the environment around them, but also to realise the business opportunity that changing customers' needs, presents. If you look at the, health sector of, the trends, you can also see all sorts of responses around, particularly a growing awareness of allergies and intolerances. And if you think about how much of the supermarket aisle is now dedicated to, free ranges, and that has expanded exponentially over the last 24 months.

We've also very recently here in the UK in very positive and welcome changes around the requirements for food businesses to label allergens, and I think we're very aware of the consequences of not taking those types of issues seriously. The anti-vaccination movement meanwhile, ebbs and flows, and the lack of trust is presenting a real issue both for the pharmaceutical companies who manufacture those vaccines, but also for the bodies who are responsible for our public health as we start to see the impact of customers questioning behaviour that we would have taken, for granted a few years ago. And it's a great example of a human issue that's already spilling over into the pet world, as pet owners are starting to question the value of vaccinations and regular parasite treatments.

And I know this is already very high on our vet's agenda and it's an area where the industry is very active. And when it comes to trust, as an industry, you have a real advantage, because vets are still a very, very trusted part of, the business community, and healthcare professionals in general, but we'll come back to that a little bit later. Moving on, if you think about some of the social aspects, again, there are all sorts of, businesses that are understanding that, particularly the opportunities around building communities, to address loneliness and the need for different types of social interaction, in a world where, more and more interaction is actually virtual, is providing some really interesting business opportunities.

And from a health perspective, social prescribing is something we are very interested in it simply health, using, this is an opportunity to encourage people to take part in, physical activities or, group activities and as an alternative to medical interventions. And I think this is incredibly relevant again to the space, particularly of pet ownership. Because, when we talk to pet owners, and I'm sure as you talk to, people who come into your practise, it is incredibly clear that for a lot of people, the motivation, one of the main motivations for owning pets is actually to address some of those issues of isolation and loneliness, that are, are increasingly busy and virtual worlds are.

Starting to throw up. So a very interesting opportunity for vets both to support their customers in actually, maintaining that sense of community and the company that those animals provide, but also a business opportunity for you, as those pets take on, ever more important roles in the lives of, your clients and your customers. So those are just a few examples of how businesses, are already responding to some quite big macro trends and things that are on customers' minds, to, help grow their businesses.

And it's easy to see why this is the right thing to do, and why it responds to what customers want. But of course, we are also businesses. So is there a business case for it?

Well, we very much believe that it does, step up from a commercial perspective. And a lot of research has been, done into that. So it's important at this point to say that nothing replaces the need for any business, whether you're a vet practise or a supermarket or an airline, to have products and services that respond to customers' needs and do so at an acceptable price point.

But assuming that you are all very sensible people who are already doing that, then building a sustainable brand in the sense that we've just been describing can be a strongly differentiating, factor for you. Research suggests that 81% of consumers agree that it's extremely or very important for companies to implement programmes to improve the environment, for example. A few years ago, we would have accepted that that was the role of government, or public institutions, but, increasingly the expectation is that business will play its part in creating shared value for the society in which we live.

Meanwhile, 66% of customers are willing to pay more for sustainable brands, and that's only growing as a percentage year on year. That's not to say that people are going to pay significant price premiums. There's still a question around affordability, but, even a small price premium multiplied out against across all of your customer base, will add up to more money in the bank at the end of the year, and, that's worth considering.

And, customers are also willing to pay more for products which are highly ethical, high quality, high, safety standards. So there are a number of, indicators that to suggest not only is it good for, the environment and society in which we live, but also good for our businesses. I was talking to a colleague this morning, in fact, about her purchasing behaviour, when it comes to household goods.

And that's now being entirely driven, or very largely driven by the requirements from her children to live in a more sustainable way. So she is now taking, reusable plastic containers to the supermarket as far as possible, as a family, and they have now stopped buying shampoo in bottles. They're buying, bars of soap, and that is being driven by school-age children in the family saying that they're not prepared.

To accept, the behaviour, that has, our generation, we might have accepted when we were their age. So increasingly, as the younger generations grow up, the case for the business case for building sustainable brands, we believe is only going to grow and grow. And repeating and re-emphasizing that point, I think, it's clear that consumers are really buying into brands that care, care most certainly, in the case of vets about, the, animals that, You are looking after on their behalf, but also about wider planet.

And, we are increasingly seeing how pets are becoming, part of the family, and, the, the demand for, pet products that are sustainable around the environment will only grow and grow. So all of the trends. That you're already seeing in terms of how consumers are buying household goods, how, children's, thinking about children and the future of their children, is already driving what people, do, is only going to extend into the world of, pet care, we believe, when pets become an increasingly important part, of their families.

So, I mean, that all sounds a bit like motherhood and apple pie, and it's very easy for me to sit there, and say all of that. So I wanted to just give you a flavour of, how that plays out to Simply Health so that you can see how we're putting our money where our mouth is and give you a couple of practical examples of how we're approaching it. In some ways, Simply Health has an advantage in that we were created, as a socially responsible business, way back in 1872, before the NHS when we were responding to a need for, working-class people at that point to get access to, human healthcare.

But the fact that we are still doing it, 170 odd years later, 140 years later, rather, is testament to the power of the approach, I think. And more than ever, as I've explained, it's validated by the research that we're doing with our customers that say that not only do they expect this from brands, and they are increasingly going to demand it. We absolutely have evidence that being purpose-led.

Drives loyalty. It gives us an ability to tell a differentiated brand story. We still need to talk about our products in a way that is relevant to customers, but it gives us more things to talk about and so it broadens the impact our story can have.

We believe that it helps us, influence, at a wider level, both within our local community, and indeed more nationally, where we look to lobby, on key issues, whether it's an industry or a government level, and we have very strong evidence that it is helping us to attract and retain talent. So in a world where there is increasing competition for talent and the job market, becomes quite constrained, it is noticeable that when we Talk to new recruits to the business, increasingly, the one thing that they say that is attracting them to us, is our, sense of purpose and our social, credentials. So, our purpose is very much at the heart of what we do, and, we believe that it is one of the core things that will enable us to build a sustainable brand for the future.

So what I'm talking to you about is something that we very much believe and put into action at Simply Health. Well, what does that look like? It means, adopting, triple line, bottom line approach.

What is a triple bottom line approach? Well, it's thinking about, it's thinking about three things. It's thinking about healthy people, whether they're is our own people or our customers is thinking about healthy profits because as a business, we need to be profitable if we're going to continue, to invest in building healthy, people and healthy communities, and it means playing our part in creating a healthy planet, because, without a healthy planet, none of us are going to have sustainable businesses, to operate, and be employed, in, in the future.

We're engaging all of our teams right across the business and actually increasingly our customers too in defining what that means for us and building out programmes that mean that we are able to deliver against those ambitions. And we are in the process of setting company-wide goals and targets, against a whole range of different activities that you can see on the slide in front of you. It's important that we set those, objectives so that we can engage everybody in meaningful programmes to drive towards them, and that we can really stretch, our ambitions.

It's also very important to us that we're able to report on those. We want to be able to talk to all of our customers, and our different stakeholders about the commitments that we're making to driving, a more sustainable future, and that we are holding ourselves to account for reporting against them, both because this is the right thing to do, but because customers believe what they see, not just what you say, and see if they're being able to chart and measure tangible progress, we believe it's very important. So, that was a lot about wider society and supermarkets and a little bit about airlines.

Well, what about vets? I, I can't pretend to have the answer, for, for vets because nobody knows your businesses like, you do. And it's a broad church, and there are a lot of angles, there are a lot of things for us all to think about, and for everybody's individual practise where you choose to focus and actually where your customers and your, practise teams want to focus may well be different.

But on the slide, there are 6 things, 6 areas that you might want to think about. And actually, I'm pretty sure that some of the people who are listening to this webinar, either live, or, subsequently, are already doing some great stuff in some of these areas. And one of the things that would be really terrific would be some sharing of best practise and ideas across the industry.

On, what is really working and what is helping all of us be successful, because ultimately this is partly about building successful businesses for each of us in our own right, but it's partly about all of us taking responsibility as citizens of, planet Earth, and helping each other. So sharing of ideas in this space is really, really important. So, here are some things to think about.

Sterile environments. I know a big topic for, healthcare, in general, and for, vets in particular. We've made huge, progress, of course, in terms of building sterile environments and reducing infections around us, but a lot of that progress has been built on single-use pla plastics.

And so the next challenge for us as an industry is to think about how do we continue to maintain sterile environments while Simultaneously, developing new approaches and encouraging our suppliers to, develop new materials that will enable us to continue to operate in the right environment, but while doing so, drive major system change that will enable us to be sustainable. And maybe there's not so much that you can do about that as an individual vet, but you could certainly talk to your supply chain about it, and support the businesses and brands that are trying to drive systemic change, at this level. Energy efficiency is perhaps much easier to affect.

Small things like making sure that all of our light bulbs are up to date. We've replaced all of the lighting at SimplyHealth with LED light, for example, insulating where possible and encouraging teams to think about turning things off where possible. You can save money for yourself, you can save energy for the planet.

And if you're in the position of building new buildings, and the opportunities for efficiency and cost saving are absolutely huge and can be an important part of the story, that you can tell about how you're helping to build a sustainable brand. Recycling is another area that I know many of us are keen to do, and I know that it is challenging in different areas, with every local authority seemingly having its own, variation on what you can and can't recycle. But please don't be defeated.

You can still make an impact and you can encourage your customers to get involved in that too. Every little helps to, to borrow a phrase from a well-known supermarket. Another issue you might want to consider in practise is water usage.

It's hard to believe that water scarcity is really likely to be an issue in the UK, but at a global level, it already is a major issue, and in the long term it may become a local issue for us too. And so changing habits and processes now to minimise water use simply makes long-term sense. How about transport?

Some of you will be driving quite long distances potentially to visit, your clients. And fuel usage, again, is a place where we can all make a real impact on our carbon footprint. At Simply Health, we've introduced, electronic charging points and incentives to encourage all of our teams, to think about using, Electric cars instead of diesel or petrol cars.

Again, it might not be something that you can affect overnight, but it is starting to make a difference. And you can start to talk to your wider business community about doing the same things. So we were the first business in Andover where we're based to, in All our electric charging points, and we've now been encouraging the council to come and look at what we've done and to get a wider network of business doing the same thing.

So maybe we can all amplify the impact of what we're doing in our own businesses by sharing that best practise across the wider businesses and networks that we're involved in. So there's a list of things, a long list of things that we can all think about that may seem quite simple things, but in our experience, they're very engaging things. So I would encourage everybody, as part of thinking about how to build sustainable brands, to get your staff engaged, to get your clients engaged, to really think about, what you can do, as a community and what matters to you, and how you can start, to build towards a more sustainable future.

Other things to think about. How about accessibility to pet health? As more and more people own pets and they're thinking about pet health, affordability can sometimes be, an issue and a blocker.

And I know this is something that vets, struggle with, and are already doing a huge amount to make treatment, affordable for, pet owners, even sometimes at the cost of your own business. But, continuing to think about that absolutely helps, the wider population. How do you make it easy for your customers to do the right things, for all of their pets, and to give them the right quality of care.

And what is the role that is a vet practise you can play in your wider community. Many of you will already be doing this, whether it's engaging with local charities, potentially, homeless charities, or the PDSA or guide dogs for the blind. But what more, Can we all do as individual businesses as a collective, to really support some of those community, initiatives and to amplify them and to potentially get your customers, involved in them too, so that you're helping more people in the community, but also using the work that you're doing to engage more effectively with your customers to help build your brand and build loyalty, so that you can continue to build sustainable business for the future.

We believe very firmly that there is evidence that a purpose-driven vet practise will thrive, and that doing this now is simply the right thing to do. Even when times seem a little bit uncertain from a political and an economic perspective, all of the long-term indicators suggest that this makes great business sense, and great sense for us as a community. And as we've talked about, that's not just because of consumer demand, although there is very strong evidence that there is consumer demand of it, but also from the perspective of attracting talent and future, your future workforce, who are increasingly demanding that the people they work for, reflect their own values and their own values increasingly reflect, concern about the environment, that we live in.

It's not an easy thing to do though. And once you have gone out to say that you are a sustainable organisation, and sustainable brand, customers will absolutely hold you to account, and expect you to be able to substantiate, what you're saying. So, we all need as businesses to think very carefully about the promises that we make, and how we can, deliver on them because customers are very quick to see through.

What they perceive to be marketing gimmicks and promises. And there are a number of brands who make big promises about social purpose and environmental initiatives, who have struggled to deliver on them. The ones who've come out of that well are the ones who've held their hands up, explain to people what they're doing about it.

The ones who keep trying to hide behind marketing wash always come out worse. So, This is really important work and very powerful for our businesses and our planet, but it's not something to be taken lightly. Having said that, I mentioned earlier that I think vets have a real advantage in this, and that is because, quite simply, in a world where consumers trust fewer and fewer institutions, whether that is politicians, or businesses, all of the evidence is that, in the healthcare space, vets along with Pharmacists and opticians are really standing out in their ability to main trust, which maintain trust, which means as an industry, you are doing a lot right, already.

So keep that trust, keep building on that trust, make credible plan, promises, around building a sustainable brand, and I believe you will continue to thrive. So I've talked a lot about sustainability, maybe a little less about brand. So just 5, final points maybe to think about in terms of how do you turn all of this into building sustainable brand story.

Well, my starting point was as chief customer officer, everything I do starts with understanding what customers want, and the same has to be true for you when you're building your brand. So the first thing to do is to understand your clients, also your practise teams. What do they need, what do they want, most of all from you and put that at the centre of the brand that you build.

Think about what is unique about your practise story and your point of view. What is it that your clients consistently say to you makes you different and involve your clients in identifying what that is and involve your practise teams too, because very often they have the very, very best insight. And then find examples of it.

Find examples of great things that you do that illustrate your practise story, create those stories and share them consistently every time you communicate. There's been a lot written about the power of storytelling, and it is absolutely true. Nothing tells the story of your brand more effectively than real life anecdotes, things that have happened, things that you've done, that substantiate what you say you believe.

And be consistent. Keep it simple. This doesn't have to be rocket science.

I think it can be very easy to get caught up in, the topic of branding, as some, great, kind of intellectual pursuit. It is very simply. Brands are what they say, but particularly what they do.

So think about what you do, think about what you do in a way that matters to your customers and your practise, and tell that story consistently and strongly, and you will build, a strong and sustainable brand. So in summary, some things to think about. We've talked about a number of factors that are affecting the emergence of a sustainable business model, and how sustainability in its broadest sense is increasingly impacting consumers' expectations and therefore how businesses need to shape their future business thinking.

We've given you a couple of simple examples of how we bring that to life at Simply Health, and we've given you some things to think about across your practise and some quite simple actions that you can take, nothing too scary, that would enable you to review your own sustainability impact and take action to build your business of the future. And however small it is, never question whether it will make a difference, because all of us can make a difference, and all of us are needed to make the difference, that we need to make. And, so at this point, I think I'm going to open it up to questions.

OK, thank you very much, Kate. Very thought, thought provoking presentation there. If anybody has got any questions, we have the Q&A box at the bottom, or you can also make comments in the chat.

There's nothing there at the minute, so I, I'll kick off. I mean, following on from that point, I, you know, I fully appreciate you've got to start somewhere, but one of your slides mentioned being a green carbon neutral vet. How feasible is that currently, do you think?

I think it's stretching, but all of the evidence, suggests that, we will only make, the businesses that make the biggest progress, are the businesses that set themselves the biggest goals, most challenging goals, recognise that they are challenging, but set off in that direction. And we don't have to all be perfect to make a difference. OK.

Follow up to that then. This is quite a naive question because I'm not 100% sure about this, but my understanding is that if you try and go green, it tends to cost more. So, for example, utilities, you know, green electricity is more expensive than normal.

And again, you talked about customers looking and wanting cheaper pet care and being more affordable. So how do you get that circle? Yeah, well, I don't think that going green has to be, more, more expensive.

You may find areas, where it is, but there are other areas where we find that, we are driving cost savings through it. So if you think about something like recruitment costs, for example, the fact that we are finding it easier to attract good quality people to the business, and, actually have, our own people referring us to their friends is helping us reduce recruitment costs, for example. So, I think it's about looking at a balanced set of initiatives, understanding what's right for, your business.

And balancing trading that off against what matters to your customers, and, where they will pay for that quality and that differentiation. OK, following on from that then, where you're saying, you know, it's what the customers want. Again, my understanding is most of the marketing data, so for example, on Switches work in this area.

Looks at what customers priorities are when they're choosing veterinary practise. And typically, obviously, top of the list is, it's local and that they want you to care for the animal, etc. Have you any idea at all where kind of sustainability comes in in that list?

So I think one of the points I made in the presentation is that, None of this replaces the need for any business, whether they are vets or in any other sector, to offer products and services that appeal to your, to your customers' core needs. Yeah. So, I'm not in any way suggesting that by being a sustainable veterinary practise that is not, you can succeed, if you do not meet those fundamental needs.

But absolutely, where customers, where clients have a choice of businesses, that, meet, those needs similar levels, there is evidence that they will increasingly choose the businesses that, deliver against sustainability credentials, that on average, they will pay slightly more for that, and that they will stay slightly longer. And I think increasingly as you look at younger generations, there is a suggestion that younger generations will tolerate slightly more inconvenience, and put, the sustainability issues higher up their list of, priorities. So it doesn't replace the need to meet those, basic needs, but, it can be a differentiator.

And, it is a sensible way thing to build into your business in any case because we've talked about, it can help you, build your brand, so it can help you tell your story, assuming the vets are wanting to market their stories. It can help attract, it can help attract talent, it can in some areas reduce costs, and, it is the right thing to do. OK, great.

Thank you. No questions as yet coming in. I just have one final one.

You talked about, obviously, we use a lot of single-use plastics and that type of thing. Are you aware of anything that's coming on the horizon, say, to replace those disposable syringes and needles and What have you? Is, is there anything even in human healthcare?

You probably don't know, I mean, and the last thing on earth I will pretend to be is, an expert, but I mean, I will give you an example, from, the world of, dentists where I was at the sort of dental show earlier this year and TP are busy launching, one of the first recyclable toothbrushes. Oh well. Now it's, none of this is easy, OK, so, it is made, I think, out of castor oil.

It is recyclable, of course, it's not recyclable in your average council recycling bin yet. Yeah. Yeah.

But it's a start, and, there are a number of very interesting businesses across any number of sectors who are looking at how we can take different approaches to, . To materials to, drive towards less single use, plastic. That requires two things.

That requires there to be very smart people who are thinking about this stuff and who care about this stuff, and increasingly there are. It also requires the people. The purchasers at the end of the supply chain to be willing to engage in that conversation is to look at buying those materials when they come through.

So some of that is going to take a long time to change and some of it is hard, but we have to start. Mhm. Yeah, absolutely.

Got to start somewhere. Right, there are no further questions for you, Kate, so thank you again, sorry for that. Oh, hang on, da da da.

We have a comment. There is a start to looking at using washable hats in theatre and looking at perceived requirements to reduce risk of infection. Amazing.

I knew there would be some good stuff going on out there that other people could share. Thank you, Mark, for that. .

So I'll, I'll hang on for 10 seconds or so just to see if anybody else has got any questions. But again, just to thank you, Kate, for that very, interesting talk. And again, just to thank our sponsors, Simply Health and MWI Animal Health.

And there are no more questions or comments. So thanks again, Kate. Thank you very much.

Thank you everybody for attending. Thank you. Thanks.