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Patterson sells dental and animal-health supplies and equipment to clinics, vets, and labs.
Patterson Companies is a middleman for two very different worlds: dentists and animal doctors. It doesn't make much of what it sells. Instead, it buys thousands of products from manufacturers and gets them to clinics fast, then adds services and software on top. Picture a huge warehouse and delivery network built for one thing: making sure a dentist never runs out of gloves, drills, or filling material, and a vet never runs out of vaccines or pet food. The company splits into two segments, dental and animal health, and together they bring in roughly $6.5 billion a year.
The dental segment (a bit more than half of sales) is the classic business. Patterson sells consumables like gloves, needles, and impression material, plus big-ticket equipment like chairs, X-ray machines, and 3D scanners. It also sells practice-management software so a clinic can schedule patients and handle billing. Dentists stick with Patterson because one reliable truck and one account manager can cover almost everything they need, and switching suppliers is a hassle.
The animal-health segment is smaller but similar in spirit. It serves companion-animal vets, large-animal vets (cows, horses, pigs), and producers, selling medicines, vaccines, food, and equipment. Think of Patterson as the plumbing between factories and clinics: boring, unglamorous, and hard to replace once installed. The company's profits are thin per item but steady, and it uses that cash to pay a dividend, buy back stock, and make small acquisitions to widen its reach. It was founded in 1877 as a dental-supply business, but today the vet side is what gives it a second growth engine.
Saved answer · last researched 11 Oct 2026