Spotlight on Agri-Business - VetSouth’s Mark Bryan

Mark Bryan joined the Icehouse Owner Manager Programme as VetSouth entered its early expansion phase. With internal capability in place but no formal business management training, Mark recognised the need for an external perspective to strategically capitalise on the growth opportunity.

When vet Mark Bryan first arrived to work in Southland in the late 1990s, he thought the stay would be short-lived. Tasmania was calling, with job offers lined up and a plan to move across the Tasman. But fate intervened - within the small Winton practice, one senior vet retired, another went on maternity leave, and a third passed away suddenly. “My wife and I kind of thought, oh well, we can’t leave,” Mark recalls.

Eighteen months later, he was unexpectedly offered the chance to buy 50 percent of the practice. Initially reluctant, Mark reconsidered. The opportunity proved to be the first step in what would become a decades-long career shaping veterinary services across New Zealand.

“I’d been qualified about ten years, so I was looking for a new challenge,” he says. That challenge grew quickly. Mark helped to build VetSouth, a merger of practices in Gore and Winton that soon expanded during the dairy boom of the early 2000s. Purpose-built clinics were built, and the business grew organically, fuelled by both strategy and necessity.

“From the start I always asked, what will this look like in 10 or 20-years’ time?”

That long-term mindset set VetSouth apart. It wasn’t just about scaling up, it was about making high-quality vet services sustainable for the longer term in rural communities that often struggled to attract and retain staff.

Smart mergers bring scale

The merger philosophy, treating partners as equals rather than acquisitions, proved critical. “Vets tend to be parochial and don’t always work together. We found that collaboration, so a merger rather than a takeover, worked really well.”

This approach led to further partnerships, first on the West Coast, then across the North Island and into Australia.

By 2023, VetSouth had joined forces with Vetlife and later with Totally Vets to form Nexeus, one of the country’s largest veterinary groups. Nexeus is the overarching holding entity for Comhla Vet, which is the clinical vet business. Today, Comhla employs around 1,100 staff, including over 240 clinical veterinarians - roughly 15 percent of all practicing vets in New Zealand.

“It’s got stability and a nationwide footprint now,”

Scale has brought benefits. Nexeus vets can now share knowledge across regions, offer specialist expertise once concentrated in cities, and support innovation in animal health technologies such as smart collars. “We’re agnostic,” Mark says. “Whether it’s Halter, Gallagher, or Allflex, we’ve got the systems to capture and use the data. That helps our vets provide the best advice on the ground.”

Rural wellbeing

That advice has been critical over the years. The profession has faced disease outbreaks, such as Mycoplasma bovis and a large-scale Salmonella outbreak last year, compounded by one of the wettest springs Mark has ever seen. “It was a horrible spring for our farmers,” he says.

In response, the local medical centre and VetSouth organised a Scottish ceilidh for 140 farmers, an example of the “one health” approach Mark supports, recognising the link between animal, human, and community wellbeing.

Making a difference

For Mark, governance has been a natural extension of practice leadership. “I’m a good complainer,” he jokes. “But you can’t complain without being constructive.” Over two decades he has served in professional bodies, including the Dairy Cattle Vets Society and the New Zealand Veterinary Association (NZVA), shaping strategy and policy for the wider industry.

His long service was recognised recently with the NZVA’s President’s Award.

Mark credits external viewpoints with shaping VetSouth’s growth. Through the Icehouse Owner Manager Programme, he connected with business leader David Irving, who later became board chair. “He really steered us through six or seven years of strategy development.”

Mark is an active Icehouse Alumni and recently hosted an Alumni meet-up at VetSouth in Invercargill.

Are you an Icehouse Owner Manager Programme Alumni and keen to host an Icehouse event at your business? It’s an ideal way to connect with Icehouse networks and other alumni in your region.

Email us at grow@theicehouse.co.nz