Sovereign Capital portfolio company City & County Healthcare Group has acquired ISS Healthcare (ISS), extending the group’s complex care offering and marking its first acquisition in Wales.
ISS provides care in the home from its two branches in Torfaen, South Wales and Birmingham. The Torfaen branch was established in 2001, with the Birmingham branch following two years later. It employs nearly 200 care staff, who provide a mixture of complex care, 24 hour care, elderly care and private care, supporting each service user to live independently in their own homes.
Post-acquisition, the two branches will continue to be run by their registered managers, Marion Guest and Joanne Pickett, of Torfaen and Birmingham respectively. Guest joined ISS over 10 years ago while Pickett joined ISS in 2004; both had built up significant experience in the domiciliary care sector beforehand.
The acquisition of ISS is City & County’s 14th since Sovereign invested in the group in September 2009. In addition to this acquisitive growth, the company has seen strong organic growth, and it is now the fourth largest domiciliary care provider in the UK, offering around 140,000 hours of care per week. In recognition of this growth, City & County was ranked at 36 in the Sunday Times “2012 Buyout Track 100”.
Dominic Dalli, partner at Sovereign Capital, says: “This acquisition builds on City & County’s strong growth during 2012, reflecting both the group’s reputation for offering high-quality services and the preference of service users to be cared for in their own homes wherever possible. Despite the challenging economic climate, City & County has now quadrupled the number of care hours it provides per week since our investment began three and a half years ago.”
Craig Rushton, group chief executive of City & County, says: “The addition of ISS marks a significant step in City & County’s continued growth as it both extends our complex care offering and expands our geographic reach into Wales for the first time. ISS has built an outstanding reputation for the quality of its services, in line with our commitment to acquire only outstanding providers, and we are delighted to welcome its experienced staff to our group.”
