01 OUR COMMITMENT TO ADVANCEMENT
We challenge ourselves to become better every day. This includes improving management of our environmental, social and governance efforts, endowing Patterson with long-term value in a changing world.
To Our Stakeholders:
For more than a century, Patterson Companies has consistently delivered the products and services needed to support our customers. At its core, our purpose is to strengthen the people who keep us and our animals healthy. While we do so by providing our dental and animal health customers in North America and the United Kingdom with the latest products, technologies, services and innovative business solutions that enable operational and professional success, our greatest strength comes from our dedicated, knowledgeable employees who deliver unrivaled expertise and unmatched customer service and support. Our vision is to be the most indispensable partner for oral and animal health professionals, providing them with both solutions and our unique personal touch. Our core values underlie the execution of our purpose and vision.
This Corporate Responsibility Report reflects the current state of work we have done, consistent with our core values, to develop and advance our environmental, social and governance efforts and provide a foundation for development of, and future report out on, goals and progress. I am grateful for the disciplined focus of our team, their commitment to our values-based culture, and dedication to building connections with our customers, communities and other stakeholders.
Throughout this report you will find information that aligns with our core values:
We are always advancing: We seek to advance our performance with regard to issues that are meaningful to our stakeholders, with the goal of creating long-term value.
We are focused: We strive to operate our business with integrity and strong governance practices.
We are people-first: We invest in our team members and are committed to cultivating a collaborative, responsive and inclusive workplace.
We are passionate: We are dedicated to serving the communities where we live and work, both through our products and services and corporate giving and volunteerism.
I believe the efforts reflected in this report lay a strong foundation to drive future progress on our journey.
In closing, I’d like to express my gratitude for the support of our company’s stakeholders. It is because of you that we are able to pursue our Purpose, Vision and Values while enhancing our environmental, social and governance efforts and objectives.
Don ZurbayPresident and CEO
Patterson supports the oral and animal health markets in North America and the United Kingdom (U.K.). From small, private practices to large group networks and production operations, we guide our customers with bold solutions and a personal touch. We strive to be not only a distributor but an indispensable partner.
Patterson Dental has served the dental industry since our company’s founding. Today, Patterson Dental continues to partner with dental practices of all sizes to provide expertise, products, technologies and services needed to grow productive, modern practices and keep them running smoothly.
We believe that no other company supports the animal health market like Patterson. We entered the animal health industry in 2001 with our acquisition of Webster Veterinary and expanded with our 2015 acquisition of Animal Health International, Inc. We provide the software, products, expertise and solutions needed to deliver exceptional animal care and drive profitability across the companion, production and equine markets.
Our purpose is clear: We strengthen the people who keep us and our animals healthy.
Patterson’s story dates back to 1877, when two brothers opened a storefront in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Now, more than 145 years later, Patterson is a publicly traded company headquartered in St. Paul, Minnesota, employing more than 7,500 people across North America and the U.K.
It’s not often you hear the word “love” when talking about a company’s culture. Yet our teams love what they do. We believe our people’s dedication is driven by the people-first emphasis in our purpose, vision and values. Some of our employees have been here for their whole careers. We know one another, respect one another and know that we are accountable to each other.
At Patterson, we support each other’s focus and passion, and challenge one another to do better – making sure we are always advancing.
The Patterson value of always advancing inspires us to improve management of our ESG efforts; we believe a focus on issues of importance to our stakeholders can create long-term value in a changing world.
Creating an ESG Task Force comprised of cross-functional executive and senior leaders to guide strategy and focus on an ESG program that aligns with our business purpose
Updating our governance practices to reflect oversight of these efforts at the board level
Enhancing our company compliance and ethics program through the addition of people, policies, processes and procedures
Focusing on effective health and safety practices, reducing our incident rate and our lost time rate
Continuing efforts to reduce environmental impact through minimizing package materials and maximizing efficiencies
Hiring a DE&I director to build a strategy to support diversity and inclusion in our workforce
Training Patterson managers on inherent bias and inclusive leadership
Continuing to expand a formal mentorship program for employees
Supporting students through the Patterson Foundation
Both company management and our board of directors oversee the company’s ESG and corporate responsibility initiatives, including reviewing our ESG reporting.
Patterson’s board of directors and its designated committees oversee ESG strategy and initiatives in the following ways:
Board members provide support as management sets goals and identifies targets for priority topics
The Governance and Nominating Committee assists and advises the full board on ESG issues of strategic significance to Patterson
The Compensation and Human Capital Committee reviews the development, implementation and effectiveness of our policies and strategies relating to human capital
The Compliance Committee reviews progress and goals relating to environmental and occupational health matters
The board regularly engages in educational activities, and in FY24, ESG topics were among the areas of focus.
A cross-functional task force of executive and senior leaders led by our chief legal officer oversees Patterson’s ESG initiatives at the management level. The task force guided Patterson in conducting our FY24 materiality assessment and creating the present report. It is responsible for developing ESG strategies and goals, and, through our chief legal officer, provides progress updates to the board on these efforts.
In FY24, we added rigor around the process to identify ESG issues relevant to key stakeholders, peers and our industries, assess our current state, lay a foundation to set future goals and transparently report on results.
To present a data-driven benchmark of our current state and orient Patterson towards setting future ESG goals, we worked with a third party to conduct a materiality assessment that incorporated multiple key ESG frameworks to establish a robust foundation grounded in best practice for ESG reporting.
These frameworks include: the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), which provides widely used sustainability reporting standards; elements of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD); and the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which countries have adopted as a call for action on peace and prosperity while pursuing climate action and environmental protection.
We also examined three ESG data and standards organizations relevant to our industries:
MSCI, which measures a company’s resilience to long-term, industry-material ESG risks
Sustainalytics, which supports investors in integrating sector-specific ESG information into their decision-making
Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB) – Health Care Distributors standard, which allows companies to report on industry-relevant sustainability issues in a comparable way
In addition, we reviewed a selection of peer companies and leading industry vendors, against which we created a benchmark of material topics. To incorporate a company perspective, we conducted a written survey of our senior leadership team and interviews with executive leadership and members of our board of directors. The results of this research and engagement resulted in the material topics as presented in the matrix on the following page.
Together, these inputs identified the top ESG topics most relevant to our business and industries, as well as opportunities to report about them. They are the basis of our reporting on the current state of our efforts, and we expect to provide updates periodically in future reports.
While this document describes matters that may be “material,” “substantive,” “significant” or similarly described in the context of our ESG priorities and related activities, such description does not necessarily equate to the level of materiality of disclosures required under the U.S. federal securities laws and these terms are not used, or intended to be construed, as they have been defined by or construed in accordance with such laws, or as these terms are used in the context of financial statements and financial reporting. Statements contained herein speak only as of the date made, and may be updated periodically in future reports.
