22/04/2025
Announcement of 22nd April 2025
The Directors of Scott Mitchell Veterinary Care would like to share the following message from our friend, colleague and fellow director Colin Mitchell:
“With a feeling of overwhelming nostalgia, I am announcing my retirement from the practice, and from being a practising vet, at the end of May this year. I will no longer be a shareholder, or director, of the practice.
I graduated from University in 1995, and then started in this practice in February 2003, as one of only three vets. I am immensely grateful to Roger Scott who, in 2004, offered me the opportunity to be a partner in the business. Scott Mitchell Vet Care has fulfilled all my professional ambitions, and given me unrivalled enjoyment along the way. I am grateful to every client, and patient, for all the support over the years. I am fortunate to take with me a wealth of stories and tales with many happy endings but, inevitably, with some sad moments along the way.
Although I am retiring, Liz is continuing to work at the practice and carry on her zone visits, breeding programmes, health plans and preventative health projects etc. Whilst I hope to leave behind a legacy, I have no doubt the ongoing and future stability of the practice is in safe hands with Roger, Steph and Euan.
In July, I start work with a firm of accountants in Hexham. This career change will allow me to use the knowledge gained from my recent Master’s degree study, to support other businesses.
I am excited about this change in my career path, safe in the knowledge that the practice, and the team behind it, will carry on the good work.”
A response from the Directors:
We are so immensely grateful to Colin for the legacy he leaves behind; a legacy of great strength for the practice based on over 20 years of clinical excellence, exceptional professionalism, hard work, and, most relevant to his new venture, extraordinary financial acumen. Our clients, patients and industry partners will undoubtedly share this gratitude having enjoyed these same valuable attributes and having seen them being delivered so effectively by Colin, day in-day out, all year round, for all those years – Colin has been a full contributor to the out of hours team since he joined the practice and ever since.
Colin’s strengths and qualities are reflected in his achievements. Aside from the no-small-matter of building a successful veterinary practice, Colin has
successfully studied for, and obtained, advanced certification in Equine Practice and in Practice Management and he has recently studied in his spare time to gain a Master’s Degree in Corporate Governance with Company Law, which leads him into the next exciting installment of his career.
Quite how Colin has managed all this at the same time as being a husband to Liz and father to Shona and Ollie is probably a reflection of his exquisite time management and punctuality!
A message from Roger:
I would like to thank Colin personally for having the confidence needed to join me at what was a very early stage in the practice and for his many years of ongoing loyalty to the cause of building a practice founded on excellence, a practice where the team are everything, and ultimately and most importantly, building a practice that cares.
Colin and I have always wanted the practice to remain independent in the face of a world of corporatisation. With much credit to Colin, it is clear and evident that Steph and Euan are proof and embodiment that that is exactly what is happening.
On behalf of our team, our clients and our industry partners thank you to my friend, to our friend, Colin Mitchell.
Roger Scott
