Suffolk County Small Animal Veterinary Practice, 80-Year Long Island Hospital

$3.7M

Revenue

$943K

SDE

3.9x

Multiple

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Full Editorial Writeup

This is a small animal veterinary hospital on the South Shore of Long Island in Suffolk County, New York, with more than 80 years of continuous community history. The practice generates roughly $3.66 million in gross revenue and about $943k in owner cash flow, and it added over 750 new clients in 2025 alone. The 4,000 square foot facility sits on a high-traffic corridor (20,000+ vehicles per day) and is equipped with 3 exam rooms, a surgery suite, digital radiography, ultrasound, in-house lab, full pharmacy, and boarding, meaning the physical and clinical infrastructure is already built out.

The interesting wrinkle here is capacity. The hospital has recently shrunk to roughly a 1.5-DVM operation, with the retiring owner as the full-time vet and two part-time relief doctors. Historically it ran as a busy 3 to 4 associate practice, so the demand, client base, and buildout to support a much larger team are demonstrably there. In plain terms, this business is producing near-$950k of cash flow while running at maybe half its proven headcount.

The real estate is leased, not included, so a buyer is acquiring the operating practice and goodwill only. The seller is retiring after decades and is offering a flexible, negotiable transition. For a DVM-owner or a veterinary group with staffing and recruiting muscle, this is a classic under-doctored, over-demanded practice where the growth lever (hiring back associates) is obvious and already validated by the site's own history.

Why we like it

Earnings quality is strong and durable: $942k of cash flow on $3.66m revenue is a 26% owner margin from a single dominant clinical location with 80 years of built-up local goodwill. Recurring wellness visits, vaccines, pharmacy, boarding, and returning patient panels mean revenue does not have to be re-won from scratch each year.
The moat is time and reputation, which are hard to replicate. An 80-year hospital on a corridor doing 20,000+ cars per day with 750+ new clients last year has real brand equity and a defensible referral base that a new clinic cannot buy or advertise its way into quickly.
Veterinary spend is one of the most recession-resistant categories in consumer health: pet owners defer many things before they defer a sick animal, and wellness and pharmacy revenue is sticky across cycles. The category also enjoys secular tailwinds from pet humanization and rising per-visit spend.
The operator advantage is unusually clean here. The practice already ran with 3 to 4 associates and is now down to roughly 1.5 DVMs, so a buyer who can recruit even one or two associates back is buying proven, waiting demand rather than speculative growth, with the exam rooms and equipment already in place.

How to improve it

Recruit associate DVMs immediately to rebuild toward the historical 3 to 4 doctor model. The site has already demonstrated it can support that headcount, and each productive associate adds several hundred thousand in incremental revenue against fixed facility costs, so this is the single highest-return move in the first year.
Extend appointment availability and hours to capture demand the current 1.5-DVM staffing is turning away. With 750+ new clients in 2025 and only occasional relief coverage, the practice is almost certainly leaving bookings on the table that additional capacity converts directly to cash flow.
Launch or expand a wellness membership plan covering annual exams, vaccines, dental, and preventatives billed monthly. This smooths cash flow, locks in visit frequency, and increases lifetime value per patient while making the revenue base even more predictable for a future exit.
Grow high-margin ancillary lines already sitting in the building: boarding, in-house diagnostics, dentistry, and pharmacy. These use existing space and equipment, so incremental volume drops to the bottom line at high margins without major capital outlay.
Professionalize the pharmacy and retail against online competition by matching convenience with auto-ship refills and clear pricing. Vet pharmacies leak revenue to Chewy and online sellers, and simple refill workflows recapture a meaningful chunk of that spend.
Given the leasehold structure, lock down a long-term lease with renewal options and defined rent escalators before or at close. Because no real estate is included, lease security is the value here, and an uncertain or short lease is the largest structural risk to the goodwill you are paying 3.87x for.
Build a repeatable DVM and tech recruiting pipeline using the nearby veterinary education programs referenced in the listing. Sustained associate hiring, not one-off hires, is what unlocks the multi-doctor economics, so treat recruiting as an ongoing operating function.

Diligence notes

Scrutinize how much of the $942k cash flow is tied to the retiring owner's personal production as the full-time DVM. If a large share of revenue walks with the seller, the buyer must underwrite the cost of replacement doctors and any expected production dip during the transition, which materially changes the effective multiple.
Get full clarity on the lease: remaining term, renewal options, current rent versus market, escalators, and any relocation risk. Since the real estate is leased and not included, the entire durability of this goodwill depends on staying in the location that built the 80-year brand.
Reconcile the reported $942k cash flow (SDE) against the $672k EBITDA and verify the addbacks. Confirm the normalized owner-DVM compensation is properly accounted for, because a buyer who is not personally practicing must pay a market DVM salary that reduces true acquirer earnings.
Analyze the new-client and revenue trend over the last three to five years, not just the strong 2025 new-client number. The practice has shrunk from 3 to 4 associates to 1.5 DVMs, so confirm whether revenue held up or declined with that contraction and whether client attrition is a risk.
Verify staff retention and roles across the 13 full-time employees, especially licensed technicians and front-office leads. In an under-doctored practice, the support team's stability is what keeps throughput and client experience intact while a buyer rebuilds the doctor roster.
Confirm the condition, age, and ownership of the clinical equipment (digital radiography, ultrasound, anesthesia, in-house lab). Deferred capex on aging diagnostic gear can quietly eat into the projected returns, so factor any near-term replacement costs into the purchase economics.

Source

Originally listed on BizBuySell. View original listing →