Scottish serial entrepreneur Robert Kilgour has bought two Lanarkshire care home companies – the latest step in his growth plan aimed at doubling the size of his company Renaissance Care.
[adbutler zone_id=’297765′]
The operating companies for the two Uddingston properties, Rosepark Nursing Home and Croftbank Care Home, which have a total 128 beds and employ close to 200 staff, have been acquired from the Balmer family, who run locally-owned Balmer Care Homes Group Ltd.
The deal also includes the purchase of a development site next to Croftbank, where Kilgour plans to build another care home sometime in the near future.
These additions mean Renaissance Care now has a portfolio of 14 homes with close to 700 beds, employing almost 1,000 staff.
Kilgour previously had great success in the sector as the original founder of Four Seasons Health Care, which he started with one care home in his native Fife in the late 80s, before departing the company in 2000 – by which time it was the fifth largest business of its kind in the UK with over 100 homes and 6500 employees. He completed his final financial exit from Four Seasons in 2005.
The acquisition means that Renaissance Care will have a turnover of £25m in the coming year up from £20m this year and a spread of care homes in Edinburgh, Glasgow, Aberdeen, Aberdeenshire, South Lanarkshire, Perthshire and Moray.
Kilgour said: “We look forward to welcoming these care homes, their staff, management, residents and their families in to the Renaissance Care family. This deal is another step in our ongoing expansion plans to become a major Scottish care home operator.
“We’re a nimble Scottish company, wholly-owned by the management of the company, and this gives us a platform to develop further and faster. I would like to see us double in size over the next two to three years to have close to 30 properties in Scotland. I believe this is an achievable target.
Kilgour has also recently made two new senior management appointments. Louise Barnett, holder of the National Care Awards, UK Operations Manager of the Year title, joined Renaissance Care as Managing Director, and Yvonne MacKenzie joined as Operations Director.
Kilgour added: “These are key appointments, with Yvonne’s being a new post, and they have been made as part of Renaissance Care creating the right platform to support our growth drive.
“I’ve been in this sector for a long time, and I’m determined to continue Renaissance Care’s growth, making it an even better company which focuses on staff development – hence we’ve more than doubled our training budget over the last four years. With this new growth in our business comes increased employment opportunities. We currently have 64 job vacancies of varying types right across the group”
He went on to express concern over Brexit and the effect it will have on retention of EU staff and the achieving of immigration visas for new recruits.
He said: “About 30% of our current staff are non-UK citizens and many are from EU countries. Our priority is to make them feel welcome and encourage them that they have a long-term future in Scotland with Renaissance Care.
“With around 30 homes, we would plan to open our own staff training academy post-Brexit to develop our own trained staff, including staff trainers who would go out and work with our existing staff within our care home network.”
[yikes-mailchimp form=”2″ title=”1″ description=”1″]
