How I create a valuable multi-home care operator

In this episode of Care CEO Success Stories, Adam James of Springup PR talks with Nigel Denny, Chair and Chief Executive of Ashberry Healthcare, which has seven care homes across England and Wales.

Nigel joined the company in 2016 from hospitality where he worked for hotel-chain Stakkis.

Stakkis’s founder was in need of finding care for his mother and struggled to find anything appropriate so Nigel toured around 200 homes in Scotland to find suitable sites to launch some care homes.

In this episode, Nigel shares the story of his journey, the challenges he has faced and how he recovered from the setbacks to run his own care company including:

•     His tour of around 200 care homes in Scotland to find suitable sites and the initial “aggressive” building programme.

•     His “forward thinking” approach that saw new builds needing to be built in such a way that it would be possible to convert them into hotels if the care home sector did not work out. 

•     The fairly severe trouble the upstart firm faced and how they were told “the care homes would have to go” if they could not raise £50 million to buy them.

•     How Nigel and four others managed to raise the funds to purchase the homes and were well supported for the next couple of years by the investors and eventually floated on the stock market.

•     The sale of the business to Southern Cross, Bupa and other large operators which saw Nigel spend a few years in other sectors such as a company working with people with learning disabilities and opening veterinary practices. 

•     Joining Ashberry Healthcare which was “in a bit of a mess operationally and financially,” and how Nigel was asked to take on a role as Managing Director.

•     The work Nigel did trying to sort out the finances and the struggles of the pandemic.

•     The current situation in his homes which are all “doing exceptionally well in terms of occupancy, profitability and quality.”

•     How creating a multi-home company requires many different skills from different people and how “you have to be committed to the journey ahead, with good leadership, together with good corporate knowledge or processes and procedures.”

•     The importance of visiting homes regularly, to keep on top of issues, and to hear about the staff and their families.

•     Providing managers a great deal of autonomy because “I trust them to run the business” and the role of managers in supporting the community.

•     How his two longest serving managers had never managed a care home before but through the “Nigel Denny School of Management”, they have become award winning managers.

•     Nigel’s core values of loyalty, integrity and compassion and how “you can keep everything personal and make things work.”

•     Nigel’s advice on how to get into providing care from buying into a business, raising finance and thinking of the size you want it to be.

•     Learning from mistakes, getting your recruitment of managers right, and supporting them properly.